THE  PSYCHOLOGY 


OF 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY-GIFTS. 


BY 

DENTON   J.  SNIDER, 

Of  the  Chicago  Kindergarten  College. 


SIGMA  PUBLISHING  CO., 

ST.  Louis.  Mo.,  210  Pine  St. 

CHICAGO,  ILLS.,  10  Van  Buren  St. 

(For  sale  by  A.  C.  M'Clurg  &  Co.,  Booksellers,  Chicago,  Ills.) 


Copyright  by  D.  J.  SNIDER,  1900. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION v 

CHAPTER  FIRST. 

The  First  Gift  (Potential)    .     ,     .     .     .  1 

TheBaU 8 

Psychology  of  the  Ball 20 

General  Terms 31 

The    Ball    in    relation    to  the  external 

world .  38 

(iii) 


iv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  SECOND. 

The  Gifts  (Quantatitive)      .     :     .     .     .     42 
I.  The  Second  Gift  (Originative)     .     .     49 

II.  The  Derived  Gifts   .     .     .     .     .     .101 

A.  Concrete  Magnitude        .     .     .   103 

1.  The  rectilineal  series  .  .   105 

2.  The  curvilineal  series  .   168 

3.  Unification   .     .     .     .  .178 

B.  Abstract  Magnitude        .     .  187 

1.  The  Surface       ....   200 

2.  The  Line 229 

3.  The  Point 251 

C.  From  Abstract  to  Concrete       .  266 

III.  Return  to  the  Originative  Gift     .     .270 

CHAPTER  THIRD. 

The  Occupations 288 

I.  The  Plastic  Occupation       ....  316 

II.  The  Industrial  Occupations     .     .     .  339 

1.  The  Plastic  Industrial  Occupa- 

tion         347 

2.  The  Useful  Industrial  Occupa- 

tions    ........  354 

3.  The    Graphic  Industrial  Occu- 

pation         369 

III.  The  Graphic  Occupation    .     .     .     .  374 


INTRODUCTION. 

Under  the  title  of  Play -gifts  we  include  that 
portion  of  Froebel's  work  usually  called  the 
Gifts  and  Occupations,  such  as  are  employed  in 
the  kindergarden.  The  attempt  is  here  made  to 
organize  them  according  to  their  fundamental 
principle,  and  thereby  to  put  them  into  their 
psychological  order,  which  will  show  their  educa- 
tive value. 

The  appreciation  of  the  worth  of  the  child, 
which  seems  just  now  to  be  dawning  upon  man- 
kind in  all  its  splendor  and  fullness  of  meaning, 
is  one  of  the  greatest  facts  of  our  time,  and  is 
its  supreme  educational  fact.  The  movement  is 
an  outcome  of  the  age,  but  it  finds  its  mightiest 
expression  in  Froebel,  who  was  filled  with  the 

(v) 


vi  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

idea  and  gave  to  it  his  life.  Moreover,  he  was 
the  first  man  who  in  any  adequate  sense  devel- 
oped the  instrumentalities  for  unfolding  the  child 
in  harmony  with  its  own  nature.  Such  is  the 
purpose  of  these  Play-gifts. 

Still,  much  remains  to  be  done.  The  kinder- 
garden  is  as  yet  hardly  more  than  the  seed-corn 
whose  planting  is  to  be  completed  by  the  incom- 
ing generation,  with  the  happy  prospect  of  a  vast 
harvest  in  the  future.  One  of  its  advances  must 
be  in  the  way  of  theoretic  formulation,  which 
Froebel  did  not,  and  probably  could  not,  give. 
Froebel  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  very  successful 
f orniulator  of  psychology,  even  of  that  psychology 
which  lies  at  the  basis  of  his  own  work.  He  was 
a  great  maker  of  educational  instrumentalities  for 
developing  the  child,  in  fact  the  very  greatest  in 
history;  but  he  never  did  give,  and  apparently 
could  not  give,  an  organized  expression  of  what 
he  had  done.  Eightly  taken,  he  was  a  far  better 
thinker  with  his  hands  than  with  his  brains. 

It  may  seem  presumption  to  some  ardent  dis- 
ciples to  try  to  improve  upon  Froebel.  But  the 
business  of  writing  has  in  it  always  a  concealed 
vanity.  The  author  of  a  book  must  have  a  lurk- 
ing egotism  that  he  is  going  to  do  something 
which  nobody  else  in  all  antecedent  time  has 
done.  He  may  be  mistaken,  usually  is;  still  he 
would  not  write  and  certainly  ought  not  to  write 
his  book  unless  he  believes  that  he  is  able  to  do 


FROEBEVS  PLAT  GIFTS.— INTRODUCTION,    vii 

a  better  thing  than  any  of  his  predecessors  has 
done.  So  much  of  self-esteem  may  be  pre-sup- 
posed  by  the  very  act  of  taking  pen  in  hand. 

Still  this  book  claims  to  be  emphatically  Froe- 
belian,  resting  upon  faith  in  Froebel's  work,  and 
deeming  him  the  greatest  of  all  modern  educa- 
tors. Let  us  express  our  position  in  this  regard 
a  little  more  fully. 

In  the  kindergarden  world  of  to-day  there  are 
three  main  attitudes  towards  Froebel:  the  sta- 
tionary, the  evolutionary,  and  the  revolutionary. 

To  the  first  class  belong  the  literalists,  who  by 
word  and  deed  show  that  their  belief  is  that  the 
child  exists  simply  for  the  kindergarden,  and  not 
the  kindergarden  for  the  child.  There  must  be 
no  change  from  the  transmitted  text,  no  variation 
from  the  established  ritual,  unless  the  audacious 
innovator  wishes  to  be  put  down  among  the 
burning  heresiarchs  in  a  nether  circle  of  the 
kindergarden  Inferno.  Instead  of  Froebel's 
motto :  "  Come,  let  us  live  for  the  children,"  we 
seem  to  hear  this  revised  edition:  "  Come,  let 
the  children  live  for  Froebel."  In  such  fashion 
the  crystallized  formalists,  unconsciously,  doubt- 
less, turn  their  master's  doctrine  inside  out,  con- 
tradict it  in  its  very  heart,  pervert  Froebel  till 
he  would  not  know  himself.  To  this  class  the 
present  book  has  no  ambition  to  belong. 

Then  there  is  just  the  opposite  class,  the  revo- 
lutionists, who  react  so  strongly  from  the  fore- 


Viii  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

going  fetich-worshipers,  that  they  rush  head- 
long to  the  opposite  extreme,  and  become 
followers  of  the  Destroyer,  veritably  the  Satanic 
element  of  the  kindergarden.  It  may  be  ques- 
tioned if  these  should  still  be  called  kindergard- 
ners,  their  object  being  to  destroy  the  kinder- 
garden.  They  are  the  Froebelians  who  are 
doing  their  best "  to  dethrone  Froebel,"  bearing 
a  strong  family  resemblance  to  those  fallen 
angels  of  the  old  My  thus,  those  children  of  God 
who  conspired  to  dethrone  God.  Of  course  the 
present  book  would  not  for  the  world  enroll  itself 
in  this  class. 

Finally  there  is  the  middle  or  mediating  class, 
which  insists  upon  being  neither  stationary  nor 
revolutionary,  but  evolutionary,  unfolding  with 
the  progress  of  the  time,  keeping  step  to  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  whose  watchword  is  evolution 
in  its  widest  and  worthiest  meaning.  Here  we 
place  ourselves,  worshiping  neither  the  fetich  on 
the  one  hand  nor  the  fiend  on  the  other.  Our 
belief  is  that  Froebel  has  given  to  the  world  a 
seed-thought  which  is  to  be  developed  into  its 
fullness  by  and  in  the  great  kindergarden  organ- 
ism, whose  principle  of  existence  must  be  growth, 
not  being  crystallized  on  the  one  hand,  not  being 
destructive  on  the  other. 

We  have  placed  all  the  Gifts  and  Occupations 
under  the  much-needed  common  name  of  Play- 
gifts  (Spielgaben),  which  name  conies  from  their 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— INTRODUCTION,     be 

inventor.  We  also  put  the  whole  stress  of  our 
book  upon  the  Psychology  of  the  Play-gifts  in 
their  immediate  genesis.  Hence  it  comes  that 
we  have  very  little  to  say  of  what  may  be  called 
the  Morphology  of  the  Play-gifts,  which  deals 
with  the  manifold  combinations  of  these  Forms 
after  they  have  been  generated.  That  is,  we  do 
not  try  to  teach  the  manipulation  of  the  Gifts 
and  Occupations,  we  say  nothing  of  those  well- 
known  Froebelian  terms :  Forms  of  Life,  Forms 
of  Beauty,  Forms  of  Knowledge.  These  are  the 
proper  theme  of  Morphology,  or  the  Science  of 
Form. 

Undoubtedly  Morphology  is  based  upon  a  psy- 
chical process,  like  everything  else  in  the  world; 
there  is  a  psychology  of  all  these  combinations 
of  Forms  in  both  the  Gifts  and  Occupations. 
But,  as  before  said,  this  part  of  the  subject  lies 
outside  of  the  present  treatise,  though  it  may  be 
our  portion  to  take  up  the  same  hereafter.  Still, 
if  the  eager  student  desires  at  once  a  more  exact 
nomenclature  for  expressing  these  two  divisions, 
let  them  be  named,  first,  the  Psychology  of  the 
Method  of  the  Play -gifts  (Methodology),  and, 
secondly,  the  Psychology  of  the  Forms  of  the 
Play-gifts  (Morphology). 

The  psychical  movement  of  thought  here 
employed  is  often  deemed  unreal,  far-fetched, 
fantastic.  To  the  sensuous  mind  all  thinking 
appears  fantastic  and  is  so  branded  by  it,  at  times 


X  THE  PSYCHOLO&T  OF 

with  a  considerable  outpour  of  insulted  dignity 
proceeding  from  a  profound  feeling  of  its  own 
ignorance.  But  how  can  the  case  be  helped? 
To  the  senses  thought  must  seem  merely  a  prod- 
uct of  subjective  fancy  turned  loose  and  allowed 
to  roam  at  will  in  the  fields  of  No  Man's  Land. 
That  thought  is  creative,  creating  anew  the  ob- 
jective world  of  things,  the  sensuous  mind  can- 
not conceive,  because  it  cannot  truly  conceive 
(grasp  creatively)  anything  whatsoever.  True 
conception  is  not  simply  an  imaging,  but  an  ideal 
creation  of  the  object. 

So  Psychology  has  here  the  emphasis,  and  well 
it  may  have,  being  that  science  in  which  the 
spirit  of  the  age  just  at  present  is  most  busily 
and  most  deeply  mirroring  itself.  But  what 
Psychology  —  whose?  Not  the  old  rational  Psy- 
chology nor  the  new  physiological  Psychology, 
though  both  have  brought  and  delivered  their 
message.  Not  the  Spencerian,  Herbartian,  or 
Hegelian  Psychology,  though  each  has  its  place 
in  the  history  of  the  science.  The  psychological 
formulation  of  the  present  book  is  taken  directly 
from  the  form  of  mind  itself,  from  the  Ego  with 
its  threefold  process  inherent  in  every  act  of 
cognition.  (For  a  fuller  development  of  this 
view  of  Psychology,  the  author  must  refer  to  his 
work,  Psychology  and  the  Psychosis.) 

Still,  the  earnest  kindergardner,  free  of  all  the 
schools  of  Psychology  and  innocent  of  its  detailed 


FBOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— INTRODUCTION,    xi 

study,  can,  we  believe,  get  the  bearing  of  the 
present  book  with  a  fair  degree  of  application. 
Undoubtedly  the  procedure  is  carefully  ordered, 
and  such  procedure  has  to  have  its  nomenclature 
at  every  important  step,  but  the  object  of  this 
nomenclature  is  to  give  clearness  and  definiteness 
to  the  somewhat  complicated  movement  of  the 
thought.  So,  what  at  first  seems  an  obstacle 
may  at  last  turn  out  a  friend  in  disguise. 

On  one  point,  however,  we  confess  ourselves 
to  be  in  open  revolt  against  kindergarden  usage, 
and  refuse  submission.  It  is  in  the  spelling  of 
the  word  kindergardner ;  we  cannot  bring  our- 
selves to  associate  with  that  awful  linguistic 
monstrosity  kindergartner,  which  is  neither  Ger- 
man nor  English,  nor  of  any  other  known  speech, 
being  an  unearthly  hybrid  comparable  only  to 
those  monsters,  half-man,  half-beast,  which 
Dante  saw  in  the  ditches  of  the  infernal  world. 
The  full  German  word  Kindergartnerinn  has 
been  introduced  into  some  writings  in  English 
(for  instance  by  Miss  Lyschinska).  This  recog- 
nizes the  trouble,  but  does  not  solve  it  satisfac- 
torily, in  our  opinion.  The  word  kindergarten 
might  pass  in  English,  but  the  change  in  its 
derivative  involves  it  also.  We  are  aware  of  the 
objection  to  this  spelling  of  ours,  namely,  that  a 
German  and  an  English  word  are  united  in  a 
compound,  but  really  garden  is  likewise  German 
(Saxon,  Platt-deutsch),  and  though  it  be  spelt 


Xli     PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FEOEBEL' S  PLAY  GIFTS. 

with  a  t,  this  is  almost  universally  pronounced  as  a 
d  among  English-speaking  people.  At  any  rate  we 
cannot  be  brought  to  designate  any  human  being 
by  such  a  monstrous  name,  certainly  not  those 
whom  we  confess  to  be  the  nearest  and  dearest  to 
us  of  all  sublunary  beings,  namely  the  kinder- 
gardners. 

Coming  back  to  the  Play-gifts,  we  shall  divide 
them  primarily  into  three  grand  divisions,  to  each 
of  which  we  shall  devote  a  chapter.  These  will 
be  set  forth  in  the  following  order: — 

Chap.     I.    The   First   Gift  (Potential  Gift). 

Chap.  II.  The  other  Gifts  (Quantitative 
Gifts). 

Chap.  III.  The  Occupations  (Qualitative 
Gifts). 

It  will  be  observed  that  we  have  placed  the 
First  Gift  in  a  Chapter  by  itself,  parallel  with 
the  other  two  divisions.  The  ground  of  this 
classification  is  to  be  unfolded  in  the  course  of 
the  following  exposition,  so  that  we  may  now 
drop  all  further  preliminaries  and  come  to  the 
main  business  at  once. 


CHAPTER  FIRST. 

THE    FIRST    GIFT    (POTENTIAL). 

We  have  already,  stated  that  the  First  Gift  is 
put  into  a  chapter  by  itself,  co-ordinate  with  the 
two  other  chapters  of  the  present  book.  Within 
itself  it  has  no  genetic  movement  like  the  Second 
Gift ;  it  remains  implicit,  potential,  undeveloped, 
or  at  least  mainly  so.  Its  six  Balls  cannot  be 
said  to  be  derived,  one  from  the  other,  in  any 
way;  they  are  chiefly  repetitions,  one  of  the 
other,  the  chief  difference  being  that  of  color. 

Still,  in  this  Gift  we  shall  begin  to  find  the 
inner  educative  process  which  belongs  to  all  the 
Play-gifts  of  Froebel.  Here  we  shall  have  to 
consider  the  Ball,  which  shows  in  its  conception 
an  external  psychical  movement  which  corre- 
sponds to  the  child's  mind,  and  so  calls  it  forth, 
educates  it  in  its  primal  stage. 


2  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

The  First  Gift  consists  of  six  Balls,  covered 
with  a  soft  netting  of  worsted,  clastic,  showing 
six  colors  of  the  spectrum  —  the  primary,  red, 
yellow,  blue  —  and  the  secondary,  green,  violet, 
orange. 

If  we  notice  more  closely  the  leading  items  of 
this  Gift,  we  find  the  following:  (1)  The  Ball 
is,  first,  "  the  symbol  of  unity,"  as  Froel.u-1 
often  declares;  (2)  multiplicity,  however,  is 
brought  into  this  unity  by  the  six  Balls;  (3)  a 
unity  of  qualities  is  maintained  in  the  six  Balls, 
they  are  alike  in  size,  form,  softness,  elasticity, 
etc. ;  (4)  multiplicity,  however,  is  brought  into 
this  qualitative  unity  by  color,  each  Ball  being  of 
a  different  color. 

Thus  we  find,  after  a  little  analysis,  a  double 
unity  and  a  double  multiplicity  (or  difference), 
the  one  being  quantitative,  and  the  other  quali- 
tative. 

Accordingly  there  is  a  suggestion  or  intimation 
in  this  First  Gift  of  the  two  grand  divisions 
which  are  to  follow,  in  general  called  the  Gifts 
and  Occupations.  The  former  are  quantitative, 
primarily  geometrical,  and  may  be  at  times 
named  the  geometric  Gifts,  yet  they  have  a 
strong  current  of  arithmetic  (counting)  under- 
neath ;  the  latter,  the  Occupations,  we  shall  see, 
are  chiefly  concerned  with  the  qualities  or  prop- 
erties of  bodies. 

Of  course,  it  will  be  understood  that  what  we 


FItOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  — THE  FIJtST.          3 

here  have  said  concerning  the  First  Gift  is  not  yet 
unfolded  —  is  still  implicit  within  the  same ;  in 
fact,  the  object  of  the  present  book  is  to  develop 
these  faint  intimations  into  something  like  full- 
ness and  completeness.  In  profound  harmony, 
therefore,  with  child-nature  and  with  his  own 
nature  (the  two  were  grown  together  in  him), 
Froebel  has  begun  his  whole  series  of  Gifts  with 
the  one  which  may  be  considered  the  Gift  of 
Anticipation  (AJtmmy). 

We  have,  for  this  reason,  placed  the  First 
Gift  as  the  grand  overture  and  introduction  to  all 
the  rest  —  namely,  the  Gifts  and  Occupations. 
It  is  not  merely  the  first  of  the  Gifts,  though  it 
be  that  too ;  it  is  also  the  first  division  of  the 
entire  theme,  and  is  co-ordinate  with  the  other 
two  divisions.  It  shares,  by  a  kind  of  instinct, 
in  the  characteristics  of  both  Gifts  and  Occu- 
pations, it  is  the  germ  of  which  they  are  the 
unfolding. 

Here,  then,  lies  the  primal  unconscious 
thought,  the  ideal  creative  principle,  as  yet  un-" 
developed,  implicit,  premonitory  —  the  faint, 
prophetic  foreshadowing  of  what  is  to  be.  It  is 
the  infantile  lisp  which  has  babbling  within  itself 
the  coining  word  and  all  that  human  speech  can 
utter.  It  is  supremely  the  Gift  belonging  to 
babydom,  intended  for  the  nursery  mainly,  and 
giving  echo  in  its  deepest  note  to  the  new-born 
soul.  The  first  Gift  is,  therefore,  a  kind  of 


4  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

speech,  endowed  with  a  voice  intelligible  to  the 
speechless  infant  (in  and  fans})  and  calling  it 
forth,  educating  it  (e  and  duco)  into  its  earliest 
self -utterance,  into  the  primal  expression  of  its 
Ego. 

Now  we  have  to  select  a  name  for  this  First 
Gift,  a  name  which  will  be  most  significant  of  its 
character.  Among  the  hiany  epithets  applicable 
to  it,  our  vote  is  for  the  word  potential,  designat- 
ing the  fact  that  it  is  a  potentiality,  not  yet  a 
reality,  yet  always  working  to  make  itself  real. 
Accordingly,  we  shall  call  this  First  Gift  the 
Potential  Gift.  It  connects  with  the  quantita- 
tive Gifts  directly  through  the  Ball,  out  of  which 
the  latter  are  deduced ;  then  it  connects  with  the 
Occupations  (qualitative  Gifts)  through  the  prop- 
erties of  matter  common  to  both.  All  of  which 
is,  of  course,  to  be  unfolded  in  the  forthcoming 
exposition. 

The  fundamental  character  of  the  First  Gift  is, 
therefore,  that  it  is  a  potentiality,  undeveloped 
yet  developing,  implicit  yet  becoming  explicit. 
In  psychological  speech,  it  is  the  first  or  imme- 
diate stage  of  the  Psychosis. 

It  may  be  affirmed  with  truth  that  the  First 
Gift,  as  the  Potential  Gift,  above  all  others  is  in 
the  deepest  correspondence  with  the  infant,  who 
is  supremely  a  potential  being,  the  unrealized 
man,  and  yet  contains  the  germs  of  all  culture, 
the  possibility  of  all  progress.  Take  the  Ball; 


FBOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.          5 

it  is  the  child's  first  plaything,  the  earliest  friend 
who  can  talk  to  the  new  unspoken  soul,  itself  in- 
capable of  talking.  But  the  Ball  is  not  dropped 
with  the  passing  of  infancy ;  it  goes  out  of  the 
nursery  into  the  kindergarten ;  beyond  the  kin- 
dergarten it  flies  into  the  hands  of  the  schoolboy ; 
from  youth  it  passes  into  the  recreations  of  even 
the  grown  man.  Thus  the  Ball  is  a  universal 
plaything,  perpetuating  itself  through  several 
ages  of  the  human  being.  Still  it  keeps  its  po- 
tential character  to  the  last.  For  the  grown 
man  too  has  his  potential  element  hovering  ob- 
scurely around  all  that  he  may  have  realized  or 
can  realize ;  enveloping  his  sphere  of  conscious 
life  lies  a  vast,  quite  illimitable  periphery  of  un- 
conscious existence,  in  which  lurk,  darkly  fer- 
menting, all  the  possibilities  of  himself  and  of  his 
race,  as  well  as  all  the  inheritances,  still  dimly 
working  in  him,  of  that  by-gone  world  from 
which  he  has  sprung.  So  the  Ball,  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  grand  human  potentiality,  is  not 
so  easily  superannuated. 

There  is  something  in  the  nature  of  affection 
in  the  Ball  when  taken  into  your  hand,  especially 
one  of  these  soft,  pliable,  responsive  Balls  of  the 
First  Gift.  Do  you  not  feel  its  gentle  pressure 
upon  your  palm?  It  is  trying  to  join  hands  with 
you  in  friendship  by  its  first  act,  and  you  cannot 
help  responding  with  a  slight  caress ;  your  very 
organism  must  give  answer  with  a  little  kiss. 


6  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

You  cannot  blame  your  hand  if  it  soon  closes 
more  passionately  upon  that  Ball,  with  an  eager 
embrace,  to  which  the  latter  replies  by  a  stronger 
and  warmer  osculation  imparted  to  }rour  palm  and 
fingers.  There  is  in  it  a  yielding  yet  deeply  re- 
sponsive nature  —  it  loves  you  and  how  can  you 
help  loving  it?  You  nestle  it,  you  coddle  it,  you 
rock  it  and  swing  it  with  both  hands,  you  toss  it 
up  into  the  air  like  a  baby  and  catch  it  coining 
down  with  a  smile.  It  has  all  sorts  of  domestic 
suggestions  —  that  of  a  nest  with  its  birdling ; 
you  can  house  it  between  your  palms  in  a  cosy 
little  home. 

To  the  child  the  Ball  lives,  from  the  start  he 
regards  it  as  an  animated  thing,  and  does  not  get 
over  his  living  intercourse  with  it  for  a  long  time. 
And  certainly  for  him  it  has  a  voice,  speaking  to 
him,  and  calling  him  out  of  his  dumb  self,  com- 
municating to  him  important  matters  otherwise 
unutterable.  And  I  have  seen  the  kindergardner 
play  with  the  Ball  in  such  a  sympathetic  manner 
that  her  radiant  face  showed  that  she  had  re- 
turned into  the  soul  of  infancy  and  was  taking 

*/ 

deep  draughts  from  that  primal  fountain  of 
joy  and  hope  along  with  the  little  ones  over 
whom  she  had  guidance. 

Looking  again  at  the  First  Gift  we  see  that  it 
contains  more  or  less  implicitly  both  the  Gifts 
and  the  Occupations,  both  the  quantitative  and 
the  qualitative  elements,  which  are  to  unfold  out 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.          1 

of  it  into  reality.  The  Ball  connects  it  with  the 
Second  Gift;  while  color,  elasticity,  and  other 
properties  suggest  the  Occupations.  Yet  the 
First  Gift  is  a  sense-gift,  immediate;  it  has  not 
the  reproductive  principle  which  characterizes 
the  Occupations. 


TUE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 


THE    BALL. 

There  are  certain  characteristics  of  the  Ball 
which  the  kindergartner  will  take  delight  in 
thinking  out,  as  this  plaything  is  the  starting- 
point,  and,  in  fact,  generative  principle  of  a  large 
portion  of  her  vocation.  It  begins  so  many 
things  in  her  work  that  it  comes  to  possess  a 
peculiar  fascination  for  her  mind.  Here,  too,  it 
is  proper  to  note  with  what  love  and  fullness 
Froebel  has  treated  of  the  Ball  in  his  writings. 

We  shall  append  at  this  place  some  cardinal 
thoughts  upon  the  Ball. 

1.  The  first  statement  usually  made  about  the 
Ball,  is  that  it  shows  unity.  But  what  kind  of 
unity  or  oneness?  For  there  is  a  kind  of  unity 
which  is  dead,  lifeless,  without  process;  then 
there  is  just  the  opposite  kind,  manifesting  all 
the  movement  and  richness  of  the  spirit.  Let  us 
think. 

The  Ball  is,  in  the  first  place,  round,  when 
considered  as  a  whole ;  it  has  no  developed  point 
or  line,  no  edge;  the  one  center  controls  the 
periphery  through  the  radius.  Such  is  the  con- 
ception of  the  unity  jof  the  Ball.  It  is  self-cen- 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS— THE  FIRST.          9 

tered ;  its  outer  manifestation  is  determined  by 
the  one  central  principle,  always  equidistant 
from  the  surface. 

Like  the  self -centered  human  being  (or  Ego), 
its  outward  seeming  or  conduct  is  ruled  by  the 
one  controlling  center  within.  Thus  it  suggests 
the  self-contained  element  in  man,  the  possibility 
of  moral  control.  The  thought  of  the  Ball 
always  brings  it  back  into  relation  with  itself ; 
so  it  evokes  the  conception  of  the  self -related, 
the  self-determined,  which  is  just  the  process  of 
freedom. 

Doubtless  some  reader  of  ours  will  think  these 
terms  and  these  ideas  as  very  abstruse  speculation 
about  a  very  simple  thing.  But  they  all  seek  to 
express  the  one  fundamental  thought  which 
utters  itself  in  the  unity  of  the  Ball.  We  must 
also  add,  that  this  thought  is  not  lifeless,  but  is 
a  process. 

2.  The  Ball  has  only  surface  manifested,  and 
this  is  unlimited  surface,  that  is,  not  limited  any- 
where by  point  or  line.     Hence  the  Ball  has  been 
sometimes  taken  as  the  symbol  of  the  Unlimited, 
the  Infinite  —  yes,  the  Divine.     Points  and  Lines 
by  the  millions  are  implicit  in  it  —  potentialities 
which  are  to  become  realities. 

3.  The  Ball  is,  accordingly,  a  small  universe 
of  possibilities.     It  is  the  possibility  of  all  points 
and   lines    and   bounded  surfaces,  hence  of   all 
forms.     Being  round,  it  is  also  the  possibility  of 


10  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

all  directions ;  it  may  turn  itself  any  whither  if 
not  stopped  by  some  developed  point  or  line. 
This  is  its  mobility  and  has  a  close  correspond- 
ence to  the  child-mind,  which  is  likewise  an  in- 
finite possibility  of  direction.  What  turn  will 
this  infantile  soul  take  in  its  unfolding?  As  yet, 
it  is  potentially  all,  it  is  the  round  rolling  Ball, 
or  at  least  the  inner  counterpart  thereof.  No 
wonder  that  the  Ball  speaks  to  the  infant  in  the 
cradle  as  nothing  else  can,  declaring  in  all  its 
motions  as  well  as  in  its  shape  its  kinship  to 
that  seedling  of  a  soul  recently  become  visible  in 
flesh. 

4.  We  must  also  think,  that  the  Ball  through 
its    external  rotundity  suggests  everywhere  the 
return  into  self,  which  is  the  fundamental  fact  in 
the   process    of   the   Ego,    and  hence  the  basic 
principle  in  every  psychological  movement. 

5.  The  seen  rotundity  of  the  Ball  gives  a  sug- 
gestion of  the  unseen  center,  which  is  the  point 
within,  and  is  ideal.     The  visible  manifestation, 
which  is  here  the  round  surface  of  the  Ball,  calls 
up  in  the  soul  of    the   child    the    invisible  center 
which    determines    that    round    surface.     That 
which  is  seen  goes  back  to   that  which  is  unseen 
as  its  source,  cause,  determinant. 

In  like  manner,  though  more  dimly,  the  felt 
rotundity  of  the  Ball  projects  darkly  the  inner 
central  point  which  is  unfelt  as  well  as  unseen. 
The  infant,  clutching  in  his  little  hand  the  little 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.        11 

Ball,  begins  to  feel  its  rotundity;  with  such  feel- 
ing, however  faint,  starts  a  corresponding  spirit- 
ual unfolding ;  the  tiny  fingers  closing  round  the 
Ball  feel  the  turn  within,  and  have  a  premoni- 
tion of  that  inner  point  which  determines  the 
outer. 

Thus  the  Ball  by  its  very  shape  opens  the 
soul's  anticipation  through  the  senses,  in  fact, 
through  the  very  humblest,  least  definite  of  the 
senses,  that  of  touch.  The  Ball  seems  to  have 
the  power  of  breaking  the  spirit's  shell  and  letting 
the  chick  out. 

And  here  we  may  be  permitted  to  give  a  prac- 
tical suggestion.  Let  not  the  Ball  be  made  too 
large ;  the  little  hand  or  hands  must  be  able  to 
inclose  it,  otherwise  this  sense  of  rotundity  will 
be  dimmed  or  quite  lost.  The  hand  or  the  two 
hands  surrounding  the  Ball  make  a  Ball,  the 
second  Ball,  which  incloses  and  feels  the  first 
Ball,  feels  that  this  is  a  Ball  by  making  itself  a 
Ball  for  inclosing  and  sensing  and  taking  up  the 
same.  Through  such  adaptation  the  organism 
becomes  that  which  it  seeks  to  make  its  own.  So 
the  hand  balls  itself  to  receive  the  Ball  (in  some 
languages  the  closed  fist  is  said  to  be  balled). 
Now,  it  is  evident  that  if  the  ball  be  too  large, 
the  little  hand  cannot  perform  its  part,  and  there 
will  be  no  sense  of  rotundity,  or  a  blurred  one. 

(i.  As  the  child  takes  up  into  himself  rotundity, 
first  through  tactual  and  then  through  visual  sen- 


12  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

sation,  he  must  project  its  invisible  counterpart, 
which  is  its  determinant,  namely  the  central  point 
already  mentioned.  Let  the  sensation  or  feeling 
of  the  round  be  never  so  slight,  it  cannot  be 
without  the  inner  suggestion  of  the  center. 

But  this  inner  central  point  is  the  negation  of 
all  extension  and  of  visibility.  Through  the  Ball 
the  child's  soul  passes  from  the  visible  to  the 
invisible,  as  the  source  and  cause  of  the  visible. 
And  this  invisible  element  is  not  merely  negative, 
a  canceling  of  the  external  and  visible,  but  is 
positive,  is  truly  the  creative  principle  of  the 
thing  seen.  For  we  must  always  keep  in  mind 
that  the  unseen  central  point  with  its  radius  is 
what  creates  the  rotundity.  In  like  manner,  the 
spatial  or  extended  is  determined  by  what  has  no 
extension  —  the  ideal  point. 

Thus  through  the  Ball  the  child-soul  begins  its 
career  of  education,  which  is,  in  general,  the  rise 
from  the  sensuous  to  the  supersensuous  as  con- 
troller, the  rise  from  the  subjection  of  mind  to 
the  mastery  of  mind  in  the  realm  of  matter. 

7.  In  this  connection  we  may  take  a  glance  at 
Symbolism,  that  much-discussed  doctrine  in  Froe- 
bel's  system.  Granting  that  his  use  of  the  word 
is  not  always  clear,  and  sometimes  vacillating  and 
even  reckless,  we  still  may  catch  from  our  pres- 
ent standpoint  a  general  outline  of  his  meaning. 

The  most  inveterate  objector  to  presentiment 
must  confess  that  this  ideal  germ,  this  unsensed 


FROEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  FIEST.        13 

point  at  the  center  of  the  sphere,  is  in  the  child, 
else  it  could  never  come  out  of  him.  Otherwise  he 
could  never  learn  geometry,  which  must  be  at  last 
his  own  inner  evolution  of  the  point,  line,  surface ; 
he  could  never  acquire  the  idea  of  rotundity,  and 
consequently  he  could  never  know  form. 

For  this  reason,  primarily,  the  Ball  may  be 
called  symbolic.  It  is  an  outer  shape  which 
images  the  child's  Ego  and  its  process  (and  the 
grown  man's  Ego  too,  for  that  matter).  The 
child  plays  with  the  Ball,  and  through  such  play 
his  Self  is  called  out  of  its  sleep,  and  becomes 
active;  thus  self -activity  begins,  and  the  Ego  is 
led  to  go  through  its  own  process  by  means  of 
its  outer  counterpart  or  symbol. 

8.  Thus,  what  we  may  name  the  external  pro- 
cess of  the  Ball,  calls  forth  the  internal  process 
of  the  child's  Ego.  This  is  the  main  educative 
fact  under  the  present  head.  So  there  comes  to 
light  the  connection  between  point  and  peri- 
phery, inside  and  outside,  visible  and  invisible, 
ideal  and  real.  This  thought  takes  the  form  of  a 
connecting  line,  the  radius,  which  joins  the  Seen 
and  the  Unseen. 

In  thinking,  or  rather  sensing,  the  Ball,  there- 
fore, we  have  the  following  process :  — 

First  is  the  outer  surface  or  periphery,  that 
which  is  seen  or  felt,  hence  the  sensuous,  the 
immediate ;  it  is  that  element  which  first  appeals 
to  the  child  through  his  senses. 


14 

Second  is  the  opposite,  that  which  is  different 
from  the  sensuous  and  is  absolutely  separated 
from  it  —  the  negation  of  surface  and  extension. 
This  is  the  central  point. 

Third  is  the  return  to  the  surface  from  the 
center,  which  creates  or  determines  the  peri- 
phery with  its  rotundity. 

This  process  we  shall  develop  more  fully  here- 
after in  connection  with  the  psychology  of  the 
Ball. 

9.  The  child  has  the  immediate  sensuous  expe- 
rience of  being  himself  the  center  of  a  Ball. 
Very  early  does  he  look  up  and  behold  the  sky 
overhead,  which  surrounds  him  on  all  sides  with 
its  dome.  Still  he  is  the  center  always,  the  cen- 
ter of  this  hollow  Ball,  or  half -Ball  which  goes 
with  him  everywhere  and  environs  him  in  every 
direction.  As  he  sees  a  little  Ball  outside  of  him- 
self held  in  his  little  hand,  yet  with  its  center 
inside,  so  he  sees  himself  inside  a  great  Ball,  he 
being  himself  that  center.  He  goes  forward  and 
may  long  to  reach  the  Avail  "  where  the  world 
comes  down,"  but  it  recedes  as  he  approaches; 
let  him  go  as  far  as  he  pleases  he  remains  the 
center  of  the  Ball  made  out  of  sky,  he  cannot 
somehow  run  away  from  his  central  position. 
He  soon  discovers  that  he  is  the  determinant  of 
this  Ball ;  he  makes  the  round  dome  above,  the 
circling  horizon  yonder,  in  fact  the  whole  over- 
arching canopy  of  heaven;  with  every  step,  too, 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.  — THE  FIRST.         15 

ho  must  make  it  anew,  and  so  reconstruct  and 
repossess  his  former  possession. 

Thus  the  most  persistent  sensuous  fact  pres- 
ent to  the  vision  of  the  child  is  that  he  is  the 
central  point  of  the  material  universe  about  him, 
which  shapes  itself  like  the  inside  of  a  Ball,  and 
covers  him  over  with  a  kind  of  protecting  roof 
as  far  as  his  eye  can  reach,  lie  finds  that  he 
lives  in  a  Ball  or  Hemisphere,  ever  changing  in 
space  with  him,  yet  ever  remaining  the  same  in 
all  his  wanderings.  So  he  sees  in  the  vanishing 
a  reappearance ;  in  the  transitory  is  always  the 
abiding,  and  within  such  a  shifting  yet  permanent 
world  is  his  home,  just  at  the  heart  of  it. 

But  he  must  remake  it,  and  forever  be  re- 
making it  —  this  his  outermost  physical  environ- 
ment. Such  also  he  is  to  do  with  all  nature  — 
remake  it  and  transform  it  into  the  abode  of  his 
spirit.  This  is  the  meaning  of  our  modem  in- 
dustrial progress.  Still  further,  and  chiefly,  the 
child  is  surrounded  with  an  unseen  institutional 
world,  a  vast  overarching  unseen  canopy  of  which 
he  is  the  center  and  which  protects  his  soul,  the 
invisible  yet  essential  portion  of  himself.  This 
institutiomil  world  also  he  is  in  the  course  of  his 
unfolding  to  remake,  to  reform,  to  repossess, 
and  thus  to  come  into  a  true  ownership  of  his 
spiritual  inheritance.  •  All  this  is  again  symbolic : 
his  sense- world  is  the  symbol  of  his  spirit- world, 
suggesting  and  calling  for  the  unseen  in  the  seen . 


16  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

10.  We  must  repeat  here  that  the  word  Gift 
in  the  present  connection  means  something  given 
in  the  sense  of  pre-established,  prescribed,  and 
presented  in  advance  to  the  child.  This  is  true 
of  all  the  Gifts  and  Occupations,  yet  they  have 
different  degrees  of  prescription.  In  the  First 
Gift  the  child  is  almost  wholly  the  recipient 
without  changing  the  material  or  the  thing 
given ;  still  he  is  to  move  more  and  more  toward 
making  over  or  transforming  what  has  been  given 
him,  till  he  gets  to  be  the  producer  of  his  own 
world  or  the  maker  of  his  own  presuppositions. 
Thus  he  is  alwaj'S  advancing  toward  a  completer 
freedom. 

So  the  child  in  the  present  Gift  is  essentially 
receptive.  But  to  receive,  he  has  to  act;  he 
sees,  feels,  tests  the  Ball  in  various  ways ;  the 
senses  and  the  will  he  employs  in  receiving. 
The  red  .Ball  is  usually  taken  first,  as  its  color  is 
the  most  striking  or  stimulating  to  the  eye  which 
has  to  be  roused  from  its  infantile  somnolescence. 
A  string  is  attached  to  the  Ball,  showing  control 
by  an  outside  power,  by  a  providential  hand;  so 
the  Ball  is  the  image  of  this  early  stage  of  the 
child,  who  soon  demands  that  the  string  be  put 
into  his  hand,  that  he  be  the  controller;  as  fast 
as  possible,  he  is  going  to  be  his  own  Providence, 
though  this  end  he  never  cfuite  attains  even  as  a 
man. 

In  the  play  with  the  Ball,  motion  of   many 


FROE BEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.        17 

kinds  begins  to  manifest  itself,  as  the  Ball  is  the 
possibility  of  all  directions.  Circular  motion  in 
which  the  Ball  by  means  of  the  string  attached 
is  made  to  come  back  to  its  starting-point  in 
space,  has  a  special  interest  for  the  child,  and  inti- 
mates the  free  motion  of  the  earth  around  the 
Sun,  which  he  is  afterwards  to  comprehend. 
The  central  luminary  has  its  string  attached  to  the 
little  earth-ball  and  is  pulling  or  rather  whirling 
the  same  around  itself  in  an  orbit,  or  self -return- 
ing circle.  Is  not  the  Sun  the  bright  luminous 
hand  of  the  Lord  (otherwise  invisible),  and  is 
not  gravitation  the  string  he  has  tied  to  the  little 
earth-ball,  which  he  keeps  whirling  around  and 
around  through  the  Heavens,  possibly  for  the 
amusement  of  the  baby  angels  up  there?  Thus 
our  First  Gift  has  its  place  in  the  kindergarden 
of  the  skies,  literally  full  of  whizzing  balls  en- 
circling central  Suns  without  colliding  —  the 
happy  stars  of  the  firmament  forever  playing 
and  singing  together  in  the  celestial  kinder- 
garden,  which  began  in  the  primordial  chorus  of 
creation. 

11.  A  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  Ball  of  this 
First  Gift  may  be  permitted  at  this  point. 

It  is  said  that  the  original  Froebel  Ball  was 
wound  from  the  center  and  covered  with  a  soft 
network.  The  modern  rubber  Ball  has  not  this 
idea  of  being  unfolded  or  generated  from  the  cen- 
ter, which  idea  is  necessary  to  the  genetic  move- 

2 


18  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

inent  of  the  Gift,  :md  is  what  constitutes  the 
psychical  correspondence  of  the  Ball  with  the 
child. 

The  so-called  clipped  Ball,  which  is  made  of 
yarn  in  the  form  of  radii  springing  out  of  the 
center,  thus  suggesting  the  movement  from  the 
central  point  outwards,  has  been  warmly  recom- 
mended for  the  older  children  in  the  kinder- 
garden. 

12.  There  is  no  doubt  that  to  employ  six  Balls 
in  the  First  Gift  for  the  nursery  is  a  mistake. 
The  result  is  complication,  confusion,  and  final 
aversion  to  the  Gift ;  many  a  kindergardner  will 
confess  that  she,  of  her  own  accord,  has  reduced 
the  number  of  these  Balls  in  the  interest  of  good 
work  and  good  order. 

The  proper  number  of  Balls  for  this  Gift,  at 
least  in  the  beginning,  is  three,  which  makes  it 
far  simpler  and  easier  to  handle,  and  moreover, 
is  in  harmony  with  the  movement  of  the  Ego  it- 
self. But  chiefly,  there  are  the  three  primary 
colors  which  in  the  order  of  Nature  are  first  and 
give  the  natural  starting-point,  forming  a  whole 
by  themselves,  nay  more,  a  Psychosis.  Then 
in  due  time  will  come  the  secondary  colors,  and 
even  the  tertiary,  though  color  must  not  be  al- 
lowed to  run  to  excess  in  the  kindergarden. 
Finally,  for  the  sake  of  the  number  idea  three  is 
far  better  than  any  other  number,  being  in  direct 
numerical  correspondence  with  the  stages  of  the 


V&OEBSL'S  PL  A  Y  ftJFTR.—  TTtK  FIllST.        19 

child's  mind,  which  are  one,  and  two,  and  three, 
this  last  being  a  return  and  union  of  the  other 
numbers  (one  and  two).  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  number  dawns  with  the  dawning  of  the 
Ego  and  its  three  stages,  which,  when  they  take 
place,  are  faintly,  unconsciously  numbered  by  the 
child.  The  mind  itself  is  stamped  in  its  very 
creation  with  the  number  three,  which  it  has  to 
reveal  when  it  acts  and  in  every  uict.  By  means 
of  the  three  Balls,  each  a  separate  unit  empha- 
sized by  form  and  color,  yet  all  combined  to- 
gether in  a  box  and  by  various  plays,  the  implicit 
number  in  the  child's  Ego  is  wakened  out  of  its 
unconscious  slumber  and  begins  to  become  ex- 
plicit. Now  it  is  manifest  that  if  we  have  more 
than  three  Balls,  or  even  less  than  three,  there  is 
a  lack  of  correspondence  between  the  inner  and 
the  outer,  between  the  Ego  and  the  object,  which 
produces  a  jar,  a  discord,  where  there  ought  to 
be  harmony.  Though  the  dissonance  seem 
slight,  the  tender  budding  child-mind  feels  it  and 
is  delayed.  As  the  obstacle  is  not  difficult  to  re- 
move, the  kindergardner  should  look  after  this 
matter,  and  adjust  her  presentation  of  the  First 
Gift  to  the  psychical  nature  of  the  child. 


20  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 


PSYCHOLOGY    OF   THE    BALL. 

In  making  the  transition  from  the  First  to  the 
Second  Gift,  the  name  Ball  (in  German  Ball}  is 
changed  to  that  of  Sphere  ( liugel) .  Froebel  gives 
certain  external  distinctions  between  the  two,  such 
as  softness  and  hardness,  difference  in  elasticity, 
etc.  This  is  well  enough,  but  we  would  fain 
believe  that  there  is  some  inner  reason  for  the 
transition  from  Ball  to  Sphere.  Though  these 
two  words  are  employed  in  common  usage  inter- 
changeably, we  shall  try  to  have  them  do  service 
as  bearers  of  two  distinct  meanings  in  the  follow- 
ing exposition. 

Primarily,  we  are  to  penetrate  to  the  concep- 
tion of  the  Ball,  which  signifies  the  creative 
principle  of  it,  the  thought  which  generates  it. 
Conception  is  not  merely  the  reproduced  image 
of  the  Ball,  its  outward  shape  drawn  from  mem- 
ory, but  the  genetic  energy  creating  it  grasped 
by  the  mind. 

The  Ego  in  conception  enters  the  Ball,  as  it 
were,  and  makes  the  same  anew  after  its  own 
ideal  process ;  to  conceive  an  object  is  an  inner 
creation  of  it  after  the  thought  which  originally 
made  it. 


FROE BEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.         21 

The  conception  of  the  Ball,  therefore,  being 
itself  the  movement  of  the  Ego,  will  show  the 
inherent  psychical  process  thereof,  namely,  the 
Psychosis. 

The  following  exposition,  which  seeks  to  set 
forth  the  total  conception  of  the  Ball,  will  move 
through  the  threefold  development  of  it  in  har- 
mony with  the  underlying  process  of  mind.  In 
the  first  place,  the  Ball  is  to  be  grasped  simply, 
as  it  is  in  itself ;  secondly,  it  is  to  be  seen  as  it 
is  taken  up  by  the  child's  senses  and  united 
with  his  Ego,  in  which  stage  (the  separative) 
two  Balls  come  before  us,  the  outer  and  the 
inner ;  thirdly,  the  Ego,  having  sensed  the  Ball, 
returns  to  it  and  beholds  in  it  the  movement  of 
itself  in  three  stages,  which  it  specially  desig- 
nates, thereby  revealing  the  concrete  Ball  or  the 
Sphere. 

Such  is  the  transition  which  we  shall  now  un- 
fold on  psychological  lines,  marking  carefully  the 
various  steps.  The  purpose  is  to  bring  out 
prominently  the  inner  elements  of  the  Ball,  which 
are  indispensable  for  deriving  the  forms  of  the 
Second  Gift,  and  out  of  them  the  rest  of  the 
Play-gifts. 

We  are,  then,  to  witness  the  following 
stages :  — 

I.  The  process  of  the  Ball  as  it  is  in  itself  — 
from  within  outward  and  back  again  —  Center, 
Periphery,  Radius. 


22  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

II.  The  process  of  the  Ball  in  relation  to  the 
organism  —  from  the  outside  going  inward  and 
then     back     again  —  the     sensed   without,    the 
unsensed   within,    the    union  of  the  two  in  the 
spherical. 

III.  The  process  of  the  Sphere  with  its  central 
Point,  diametral  Line,  and  intersecting  Plane. 

These  brief  designations  in  advance  are  to  un- 
fold into  their  full  meaning  in  what  follows. 
Let  the  student,  however,  note  the  psychical 
movement  which  these  three  stages  suggest  at 
the  start,  and  observe  that  the  whole  sets  forth 
the  transition  from  the  simple  Ball  to  the  con- 
crete Sphere  through  the  intermediate  process 
of  the  Ego. 

I.  First,  then,  let  us  conceive  the  Ball,  as  it  is  in 
itself  without  any  relation,  as  immediate.  What 
are  the  essential  factors  of  it?  Let  us  take  it  in 
the  hand  and  look  at  it  closely  and  think ;  let  us 
find  the  elements  which  it  must  have  in  order  to 
be.  We  shall  observe  three. 

1.  The  Center.  This  we'put  first,  as  it  is  first 
in  thought,  though  not  first  to  the  senses.     It  is 
the   determinant  primarily,  the    genetic    point; 
it  determines  the  object  to  be  a  Ball.     The  cre- 
ative germ    of  the    Ball  is  now  conceived  in  the 
Center.     So  we  employ  the  word  metaphorically 
when  we  speak  of  coming  to  the  center  of  filings. 

2.  The    Periphery.     This     is    that   which    is 
determined  by  the  determining  Center ;   hence  it 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.        23 

is  the  separated,  not  the  concentrated;  it  is  the 
opposite  of  the  central  point  which  is  now  con- 
ceived as  propelled  outwards  in  all  directions  to 
the  limit,  which  is  the  Periphery.  The  inward 
Center  thrown  outward  becomes  the  extended 
surface,  accessible  to  the  senses. 

3.  The  Radius.  This  is  properly  to  be  regarded 
as  the  return  from  the  Periphery  to  the  Center, 
conceived  as  a  connecting  line  from  the  outward 
to  the  inward.  ,Not  till  we  have  the  Periphery 
can  we  explicitly  have  the  Radius,  as  uniting  the 
determined  Periphery  to  the  determining  Center, 
though  we  have  it  implicitly  in  the  movement 
outwards  from  Center  to  Periphery,  which,  how- 
ever, has  to  be  fixed  before  the  length  of  the 
Radius  can  be  fixed. 

Such  are  the  three  simple  elements  of  the  Ball 
when  taken  as  it  is  in  itself.  We  observe  in  it 
the  stages  of  the  Psychosis,  yet  as  immediate,  un- 
developed. Center,  Periphery,  Radius  enter  into 
the  primal  conception  of  the  Ball  when  unrelated  ; 
but  we  soon  find  that  the  Ball  must  be  related  in 
order  to  be  conceived,  namely,  related  to  the 
Ego,  which  must  now  be  reached  from  the  out- 
side, through  the  senses. 

II.  The  Ball  as  related  to  the  bodily  senses 
comes  next  in  order.  We  have  just  seen  the  Ball 
as  it  is  in  itself;  now  its  relation  to  the  organism 
is  to  be  considered. 

For  the  purpose  of  understanding  this  relation 


24  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

more  fully,  we  may  regard  the  human  organism 
as  having  an  outer  surface  or  Periphery  in  which 
are  located  all  the  senses.  These  are  to  connect 
the  mind  with  the  external  world,  which  stimu- 
lates them  by  some  kind  of  irritation,  in  contact 
or  at  a  distance.  This  stimulation  is  borne  to  the 
brain  by  the  afferent  nerves,  turns  at  the  invisible 
central  point  ('Ego)  and  is  carried  back  to  the 
Periphery  by  the  efferent  nerves,  thus  completing 
the  cycle  of  sensation. 

The  resemblance  between  this  process  of  the 
organism  and  that  of  the  Ball  just  given  is  strik- 
ing. The  human  body  is  also  a  Ball  with  its 
Center  as  determinant,  with  its  Periphery  and  its 
Radii.  But  the  living  human  Ball  is  a  self -active 
process,  self -moving,  while  the  dead  material  Ball 
is  the  outer,  externalized  image,  is  the  outered  or 
othered  counterpart  of  the  unseen  process. 

It  may  be  noted  here  that  the  child  of  himself 
will  play  that  he  is  the  Ball,  he  will  enact  its  part 
and  go  through  its  motions.  Thus  he  uncon- 
sciously reflects  what  his  own  organism  is  —  a 
living  Ball  with  its  own  Center,  Periphery,  and 
Radii ,  which  unfolds  into  activity  through  playing 
with  the  Ball.  Yet  this  is  not  all:  the  child  not 
only  plays  with  the  Ball,  but  plays  himself  to  be  a 
Ball,  converting  himself  into  a  kind  of  Ball  in  play. 
And  it  may  be  said  that  in  every  kind  of  Ball-play 
there  are  really  the  two  Balls  co-operating  and 
interplaying — the  animate  and  the  inanimate. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.        25 

Such  is  the  stage  of  separation  in  the  pres- 
ent process:  the  two  Balls,  the  sensing  and  the 
sensed;  the  first  takes  up  the  second,  yet  is 
called  into  activity  by  the  second.  This  relation 
and  interaction  between  the  two  sides  is  what  we 
shall  next  unfold. 

L  The  sensed  Ball,  which  is  seen  or  felt. 
Now  we  start  with  the  outside,  the  surface  as 
presented  to  the  senses.  The  infant  closes  its 
tiny  fingers  around  the  Ball,  sensing  the  surface 
of  the  same;  its  Periphery,  overlaid  with  nerve 
tissue,  is  brought  in  contact  with  the  Periphery 
of  the  Ball,  overlaid  (in  this  Gift)  with  a  soft 
network  of  worsted,  and  is  stimulated  to  activity. 

2.  The  unsensed  element  of  the  Ball  — unseen 
or  unfelt.     This,  of  course,  is  the  Center  within, 
posited  by  the  Ego,  which  also  has  such  a  Cen- 
ter, to  which  the  stimulus  goes,  and  which  deter- 
mines the  outer  Periphery.     Thus  the  sensible 
flies   to  the   supersensible   as    its    determinant. 
The  Seen  in  the  Ball  calls  for  the  Unseen  as  its 
creative  principle. 

3.  Rotundity  or  Sphericity  of  the  Ball  is  now 
given  as  the  complete  process  of  the  outer  and 
inner,  of  the  Periphery  as  seen  and  of  the  Center 
as  unseen  yet  posited  as  the  determinant  of  the 
Periphery.     Thus    while  we  sense  the  Periphery 
and   then  pass  to  the  Center,  we  must  return 
from  the  Center  and  reconstruct  this  Periphery 
as  a  whole  in  our  thought,  which  cannot  be  done 


26  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

otherwise  than  by  thinking.  For  we  cannot  see 
or  feel  or  sense  in  any  way  the  total  Periphery 
at  once  on  the  outside,  some  part  of  it  lies  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  senses.  So  we  get  the 
idea  of  Rotundity  only  through  the  process, 
which  conceives  the  entire  Ball  as  created  from 
the  Center. 

The  completed  Rotundity  is  as  necessary  to  the 
conception  of  the  Ball,  as  the  completed  cycle  of 
sensation  is  necessary  to  the  conception  of  sen- 
sation. We  have  to  create  the  total  Rotundity 
of  the  Ball  from  within,  since  we  can  sense  only 
a  portion  of  the  same ;  the  Ego  has  to  make  the 
same  complete  through  its  own  movement. 

The  Ego  has  now  sensed  the  Ball  and  pene- 
trated to  the  Center,  from  which  it  has  moved  to 
the  Periphery,  thus  creating  the  Sphere,  which 
has  the  total  process.  For  the  Sphere  cannot  be 
sensed  from  the  outside  merely,  it  must  also  be 
conceived  from  within,  created  or  re-created  by 
the  Ego. 

In  our  thinking  we  have  to  use  terms  carefully, 
and  we  may  name  the  mentioned  transition  as 
that  from  the  Ball  to  the  Sphere,  or  from  the 
abstract  Ball  of  the  first  stage  to  the  concrete 
Ball  of  the  third  stage,  to  which  we  have  now 
come. 

III.  We  have  before  us  the  Sphere,  whose 
process  we  are  to  seek  and  unfold.  The  first  or 
abstract  Ball  has  been  taken  up  and  sensed  by  the 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.       27 

Ego ;  its  elements  again  come  to  notice,  but  are 
endowed  with  a  new  power,  being  filled  with  the 
creative  activity  of  the  Ego. 

«/  o 

1.  The   central   Point.     The  Sphere  has  not 
simply  a  center,   but  a  creatively  active  central 
Point,  such  as  is  the  Ego  itself,  for  the  Ego  is  the 
self -active  principle  which,  being  stimulated  by 
the  external   object,  has  gone  forth  out  of  itself 
and  sensed  the  same. 

Now  this  central  Point  of  the  Sphere,  in  order 
to  be  central,  must  generate  radii  going  in  oppo- 
site directions,  moving  out  from  it  equally. 
That  is,  it  must  generate  the  diameter  of  which 
it  is  the  center,  and  which  is  a  right  line. 

The  central  Point  will  show,  therefore,  the 
psychical  process  within  itself. 

First,  it  is  self -dividing  (like  the  Ego),  self- 
unfolding,  and  projects  itself  outward  into  the 
Line. 

Secondly,  it  projects  itself  into  opposite  direc- 
tions, into  two  opposite  Lines.  .  .. 

Thirdly,  these  two  Lines,  however,  are  one 
straight  Line  with  central  Point  in  its  middle. 

This  gives  a  new  element,  the  diametral  Line 
of  the  Sphere,  to  which  we  now  pass. 

2.  The    diametral    Line.     The    Sphere    has, 
therefore,    a   central   Point,    which   lies   in  the 
middle   of   its    diametral   Line    and    creates  the 
same. 

Moreover,  this  separation  of  the  central  Point 


28  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

into  the  diametral  Line,  will  be  threefold,  or  in 
three  directions,  all  of  which  unite  at  the  central 
Point  and  make  three  diametral  Lines.  These 
will  manifest  the  three  demensions  of  the  Sphere, 
since  they  measure  the  separative  process  of  the 
central  Point,  as  it  unfolds  and  creates  the 
Sphere. 

We  may  note,  in  passing,  that  the  necessity  of 
the  existence  of  three  dimensions  in  the  Sphere 
and  in  all  matter  goes  back  to  the  threefold 
process  of  the  Ego  which  in  the  first  place 
creates  it,  and  in  the  second  place  conceives  it 
by  identifying  the  same  with  its  own  triple 
movement. 

The  diametral  Line  reveals  a  psychical  move- 
ment within  itself. 

First,  there  is  the  one  diametral  Line,  con- 
ceived as  the  unity  of  opposite  directions  in  the 
central  Point. 

Secondly,  there  are  three  ways  of  conceiving 
this  unity  of  opposite  directions  —  up  and  down, 
to  and  fro,  right  and  left  —  or  length,  breadth, 
and  height,  showing  the  three  dimensions  in  three 
diametral  Lines. 

Thirdly,  these  three  diametral  Lines  are  united 
and  concentrated  in  the  central  Point,  through 
which  they  produce  the  right  angle,  in  fact,  the 
eight  right  angles  possible  around  the  center. 

But  the  diametral  Line,  sprung  of  the  Point, 
will  show  the  hitter's  separative  nature  and  will 


FROEBEV8  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.       29 

move  in  opposite  directions,  producing  the  Plane, 
to  which  we  now  pass. 

3.  The  intersecting  Plane.  Each  of  the  three 
diametral  Lines,  having  within  itself  the  central 
genetic  Point,  will  divide  within  itself  and  pro- 
ject itself  in  opposite  directions  through  the 
Sphere.  Thus  the  Plane  appears  dividing  the 
Sphere  according  to  the  three  dimensions 
already  indicated,  and  becoming  three  intersect- 
ing Planes,  which  unite  around  the  common 
central  Point. 

Such  is  the  process  of  the  Ball  into  the  Sphere. 
The  Ball  with  its  Center,  Periphery,  and  Radius 
simply,  is  sensed  and  taken  up  by  the  Ego,  which 
projects  into  the  Ball  its  own  creative  movement 
and  makes  it  a  Sphere  with  central  Point,  diamet- 
ral Line,  and  intersecting  Plane,  which  are  thus 
the  inner  determining  elements  of  the  Sphere. 

Here,  too,  we  observe  the  psychical  Ego  re- 
vealing itself  in  the  three  distinct  elements  of  the 
Sphere. 

First,  the  Line,  being  self -separating  like  the 
Point,  projects  itself  in  opposite  directions  —  up 
and  down,  to  and  fro,  right  and  left  —  and  then 
unites  these  two  directions  into  the  one  Plane. 

Secondly,  as  there  are  three  ways  of  conceiving 
this  unity  of  opposite  directions,  there  will  be  the 
division  into  three  Planes  passing  through  the 
Sphere. 

Thirdly,  these  three  Planes  intersect   on  the 


30  THE  PKYOHOLOftY  OF 

diametral  Lines  at  right  angles,  and  concentrate 
around  the  central  Point,  making  eight  corners. 

The  starting-point  of  the  whole  series  of  Play- 
gifts  is  the  inner  central  Point  of  the  Ball  as 
genetic.  This  genesis  will  unfold  till  the  Point 
becomes  explicit  (in  the  Tenth  Gift  as  usually 
numbered),  when  it  will  return  and  generate  the 
starting-point  of  itself  in  the  Ball,  thus  producing 
the  cycle  of  the  Play -gifts.  But  the  develop- 
ment of  this  subject  lies  ahead  of  us  and  cannot 
be  adequately  grasped  at  the  present  stage. 

Looking  to  the  immediate  future,  however,  we 
may  say  that  the  mentioned  elements  of  the 
Sphere,  namely,  the  central  Point,  the  diametral 
Line,  and  the  intersecting  Plane,  will  retain  their 
genetic  character  in  the  next  Gift,  and  will  ex- 
press or  externalize  themselves  in  the  Cube,  from 
which  they  will  propagate  their  creative  energy 
throughout  the  entire  series  of  Gifts.  Herein 
lies  the  educative  power  of  the  Sphere,  whose 
outer  creative  process  calls  forth  through  play 
the  corresponding  activity  of  the  child. 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.-  THE  F1K&T.        81 


GENERAL     TERMS    APPLIED    TO    THE    BALL. 

We  have  just  seen  the  Ego  determining  the 
essential  elements  of  the  Ball  as  an  object,  and 
employing  terms  which  especially  designate  it. 
For  Center  and  Periphery,  Radius  and  Diameter 
belong  peculiarly  to  the  Ball,  and  properly  to 
nothing  else. 

But  the  Ego  will  apply  to  the  Ball  terms  or 
categories  which  are  universal,  which  pertain  to 
all  things  it  may  conceive  of;  these  terms  like- 
wise apply  to  the  Ego  itself  conceiving  all  things, 
and  conceiving  itself.  They  are  its  most  abstract 
and  general  terms,  since  they  combine  in  one 
word  all  it  can  grasp  and  itself  grasping  all. 

We  shall  set  down  and  order  the  most  impor- 
tant of  these  terms  here,  since  Froebel  often  uses 
them  in  his  works  and  applies  them  to  the  Ball. 
They  are  employed  to  explain  the  Ball  and  other 
Gifts ;  such  explanation  in  abstract  categories  is 
not  to  be  rated  the  best,  since  they  themselves 
need  explanation  or  at  least  derivation.  And  this 
brings  us  to  the  main  point :  such  general  terms 
are  really  derived  from  the  Ego  and  used  by  it 
to  express  its  own  operations.  Hence  they  must 


32  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

be  brought  back  to  it  and  filled  with  its  process 
in  order  to  mean  much.  That  is,  they  are  to  be 
seen  as  a  Psychosis  or  some  phase  thereof. 
Three  of  these  most  common  terms  we  shall  inter- 
relate in  the  process  of  the  Ego,  from  which  they 
are  usually  isolated. 

(1.)  Unity.  The  Ball  is  said  to  have  unity 
and  it  has ;  Froebel  affirms  this  as  the  funda- 
mental attribute  or  category  of  the  Ball.  Still 

O         »/ 

there  is  something  inert  and  lifeless  in  mere 
monotonous  unity ;  we  feel  that  there  must  be 
another  element  in  the  Ball  besides  simple  one- 
ness. Furthermore,  Froebel  states  that  the  Ball 
is  the  symbol  of  unity ;  what  does  he  mean  ?  In 
our  judgment  he  takes  the  Ball  as  an  outer  visible 
manifestation  of  something  internal  or  spiritual, 
which  must  ultimately  be  the  Ego  or  some  phase 
of  its  movement.  Thus  the  Ego  asserts  oneness 
of  the  Ball  as  of  itself ;  the  Ego  is  supremely  one 
and  the  source  of  oneness  or  unity;  the  term 
being  inherently  its  "own,  is  applied  to  the  Ball 
which  is  also  one.  Yet  the  Ball  is  something 
else,  yea  the  opposite. 

(2.)  Diversity.  The  Ball  has  diversity,  which 
is  the  contradictory  term  to  unity.  For  in- 
stance, there  is  a  complete  diversity,  and,  indeed, 
opposition,  between  Center  and  Periphery,  yet 
both  belong  to  the  Ball.  Likewise,  the  Peri- 
phery has  in  itself  diversity  at  every  point, 
being  round. 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.       33 

The  term  diversity,  as  well  as  the  thought  of 
it,  spring  from  the  Ego  which  has  in  its  own 
process  the  stage  of  separation,  difference,  diver- 
sity. There  could  be  no  such  word  as  diversity 
predicated  of  the  Ball,  unless  such  predicate  be- 
longed to  the  Ego  in  advance.  It  belongs  to  the 
Ball  likewise,  and  to  everything  else  which  the 
Ego  takes  up  and  appropriates  through  knowing. 
Primarily,  diversity  pertains  to  the  Ego,  which 
projects  it,  or  may  project  it,  into  every  process 
of  its  own. 

Yet  the  Ego  does  not  stop  with  diversity  or 
separation.  It  returns  out  of  this  second  stage 
to  unity,  which,  however,  is  not  the  first  simple 
unity,  but  a  concrete  unity,  to  which  we  now 
pass. 

(3.)  Unification.  This  term  is  perhaps  the 
best  in  the  present  connection,  though  others 
have  been  employed.  The  words  in  its  compo- 
sition suggest  the  making  of  one  out  of  what  was 
not  one,  the  going  back  to  unity  out  of  diversity. 
Thus  it  hints  the  total  process,  which  is  not  the 
lifeless  unity,  but  the  active  one  —  yea,  the  self- 
active  one,  which  is  the  Ego  itself. 

Sometimes  the  term  individuality  is  applied  to 
the  present  stage,  and  its  component  words  suggest 
the  negating  of  division,  separation,  diversity. 
The  Ball  is  certainly  an  individual  object,  and 
within  its  limits  it  asserts  its  individuality.  It 
resists  intrusion,  and  in  the  case  of  the  elastic 

3 


84  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Ball,  it  reacts  against  assault  and  recovers  itself 
with  such  force  that  it  rebounds  from  the  assail- 
ing object. 

Froebel's  favorite  category  was  perhaps  just  this 
term  unification,  or  life's  unification  (Lebenseini- 
ffiing).  Not  simple,  abstract,  dead  unity  was  this, 
but  unification  alive,  active,  uniting  the  diverse  and 
separated  parts  into  a  process.  Here,  then,  we 
may  make  an  application  of  this  Froebelian  term 
and  put  it  into  relation  with  the  other  two. 

Unification,  in  the  sense  just  unfolded,  has  in 
it  not  only  unity,  but  likewise,  as  already  indi- 
cated, the  total  movement  which  is  a  return  out 
of  diversity  to  unity.  Such  is  the  inner  process 
of  the  Ego  now  applied  to  the  Ball ;  but  the  same 
process  and  hence  the  same  terms  may  be  ap- 
plied to  the  knowing  of  any  object  by  the  Ego. 
That  is,  the  process  with  its  categories  here  given 
is  universal,  though  now  specially  predicated  of 
the  Ball ;  we  may  say  that  a  stick  of  wood  also 
has  unity,  diversity,  and  unification  (or  individ- 
uality). It  may  be  asked,  Why  did  not  Froebel 
take  a  stick  of  wood  as  his  starting-point?  Be- 
cause the  Ball  is  the  most  perfect  manifestation 
of  the  Ego's  movement  found  in  Nature,  as  well 
as  the  simplest  and  most  common.  From  the 
infinite  multiplicity  of  the  physical  world  the 
right  object  has  to  be  selected,  the  one  which 
best  embodies  and  reflects  the  triple  movement  of 
the  Ego.  That  object  is  certainly  the  Ball. 


FROEBEL' S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.       35 

Besides  the  mentioned  abstract  terms,  Froebel 
employs  other  sets  of  them,  usually  in  the  form 
of  a  triad.  Universality,  Particularity,  and  Sin- 
gularity (or  Individuality),  in  one  shape  or 
other,  are  often  found  in  his  writings,  notably  in 
his  "  Education  of  Man."  We  have  to  confess 
that  to  our  mind,  these  terms  remained  an  alien 
element  in  Froebel  to  the  last.  In  fact,  as  he 
grew  older,  they  dropped  more  and  more  out  of 
use  in  his  writings.  It  is  our  judgment  that  they 
were  philosophical  terms  which  he  picked  up 
while  at  the  University  of  Jena  in  his  youth, 
chiefly  from  the  discussions  he  heard  at  that 
time  among  the  students.  Schelling  was  lectur- 
ing then  at  Jena,  and  his  was  the  great  phi- 
losophical name,  his  doctrines  being  the  theme  of 
general  comment  and  disputation. 

Like  all  young  thinkers  (and  some  old  ones 
too)  who  seek  to  master  the  nomenclature  of  a 
great  philosophy,  he  was  mastered  by  it  more  or 
less,  and  the  same  fact  may  be  traced  in  his  style 
during  his  whole  life.  There  was  something  in 
these  abstractions  which  he  never  fully  digested 
and  made  his  own ;  they  were  really  not  his  best 
utterance'  of  what  was  best  and  deepest  within 
him. 

In  fact  one  cannot  help  coming  to  the  conclusion, 
after  carefully  studying  his  works  both  of  hand 
and  of  head,  that  Froebel  thought  far  better  with 
his  hand  than  with  his  head.  These  Gifts  and 


36  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

their  manipulation  show  order,  logical  sequence, 
the  keenest  insight  into  their  educative  meaning 
as  well  as  into  the  nature  of  the  child ;  they  very 
justly  place  Froebel's  name  among  the  greatest 
educators  of  the  human  race.  But  when  he 
comes  to  tell  what  he  has  done,  the  word  falls  far 
behind  the  deed ;  his  exposition,  though  full  of 
intuitive  flashes,  is  deeply  defective  in  order, 
clearness,  pointedness,  often  repeating  non- 
essentials  and  often  omitting  [essentials.  Still 
Froebel's  writings  are  to  be  studied  and  pro- 
foundly studied  by  the  kindergardner,  both  for 
what  they  say  and  what  they  do  not  say ;  they 
reveal  much  which  is  important  for  her  to  know, 
particularly  the  limits  of  the  man.  For  it  has 
been  one  of  the  drawbacks  of  the  kindergarden 
that  its  devotees  heap  upon  the  founder  the  most 
indiscriminating  eulogy,  and  thereby  repel  judi- 
cially-minded men  by  their  extravagance.  Ap- 
preciate by  all  means,  first  and  foremost;  but 
then  discriminate  too,  if  our  long  and  deep  affec- 
tion will  not  let  us  criticise. 

From  the  preceding  remarks  the  reader  may 
well  infer  that  we  do  not  intend  to  make  much 
use  of  the  current  Froebelian  abstractions  in  the 
forthcoming  exposition.  Still  the  attempt  is  to 
do  justice  to  the  thought  underlying  the  Gifts 
and  Occupations,  the  most  fertile  educative 
thought  of  this  century  already,  and  as  yet  just 
in  the  beginning  of  its  career. 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.        37 

From  this  little  excursion  we  feel  like  calling 
the  reader's  attention  back  to  the  Ball,  and  re- 
peating to  him  its  educative  principle,  which  was 
Froebel's  great  insight,  and  the  ground  of  his 
selection  of  it  as  the  first  plaything  for  the  child 
out  of  the  vast  treasury  of  nature.  The  Ball, 
with  Center,  Periphery,  and  Radii,  is  an  outer 
Ego,  whose  supreme  destiny  is  to  call  forth  from 
its  unconscious,  undeveloped  state  the  inner 
sleeping  Ego  of  the  infant,  and  through  play  to 
stir  the  same  to  self -activity.  The  Ball  is,  there- 
fore, educative;  in  fact,  it  is  the  primal  educa- 
tional instrumentality  for  unfolding  the  infantile 
soul  into  its  heritage  of  knowledge  and  power. 


38  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 


THE       BALL       IN      RELATION      TO      THE      EXTERNAL 
WORLD. 

Hitherto  we  have  considered  the  Ball  as  it  is 
in  itself  and  in  relation  to  the  Ego.  But  it  also 
stands  in  relation  to  the  whole  external  world,  and 
thereby  becomes  the  means  by  which  the  child 
is  brought  to  know  the  phenomena  of  nature. 
The  Ball  thus  stands  between  the  child-ego  and 
the  cosmos,  being  the  mediating  principle  of 
both  sides. 

Such  is,  then,  the  present  thought:  the  in- 
fant through  his  Ball  is  being  gently  led  into 
relation  and  communion  with  the  whole  universe. 
In  one  way  or  other  this  small  round  object, 
being  external,  is  connected  with  and  influenced 
by  all  externality,  which  is  thus  brought  home  to 
the  child's  mind.  A  mediatorial  instrument  we 
may  regard  the  Ball,  though  a  little  plaything 
for  the  baby,  bearing  his  Ego  to  the  outer  world 
and  helping  him  grasp  it  and  identify  it  with 
himself  and  thus  to  know  it  first  in  sensation, 
then  in  image,  and  finally  in  thought. 

This  characteristic  of  the  Ball  was  emphasized 
by  Froebel  throughout  his  entire  kindergarden 


FXOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.       39 

period.  Says  he  in  one  of  his  earliest  essays  on 
this  subject :  — 

"  The  child  is  in  himself  unity  and  diversity, 
and  is  destined  to  develop  these  traits  by  means 
of  the  outer  world,  for  which  purpose  the  Ball 
with  its  play  is  adequate. 

"  The  Ball  is  the  representative  of  all  objects, 
and  hence  is  the  unity  and  unification  of  all 
properties  essential  to  all  objects. 

"  The  Ball  shows  contents,  mass,  matter, 
space,  size,  form,  figure;  it  shows  qualities  of 
bodies,  elasticity,  color,  gravity,  attraction. 

' '  The  Ball  is  the  mediating  link  between  the 
child  and  nature." 

These  citations  (and  others  of  like  import 
might  be  made)  indicate  his  view  when  he  wrote 
his  first  published  essay  on  the  Ball.  (See 
Lange's  edition  of  Froebel  I.  s.  41.  Translated 
by  Miss  Jarvis  I.,  p.  53.  This  essay  was  first 
printed  in  the  Sonntagsblatt,  1838-40.) 

From  a  later  production  of  Froebel,  we  take  a 
few  extracts  on  the  same  subject :  — 

"  The  first  plaything  of  the  child  (the  Ball) 
must  be,  as  it  were,  the  complete  representative 
of  all  objects  existent  in  space,  and  hence  the 
bearer  of  all  the  universal  properties  of  these 
objects. 

"  The  Ball  is  of  such  a  character  that  it  can- 
not hurt  the  child,  nor  can  he  injure  himself  or 
anything  else  with  it.  The  Ball  does  not  excite 


40  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  sensual  nature  of  the  child,  nor  does  it  waken 
bad  tendencies  of  head  or  heart. 

' '  In  the  Ball  are  represented  all  the  essential 
properties,  phenomena,  and  relations  of  the 
child's  environment,  as  matter,  form,  figure,  size, 
motion  of  all  kinds  as  well  as  repose.  Also,  space, 
time,  light,  color,  are  brought  to  the  child  by  the 
Ball,  which  thus  becomes  for  him  the  medium'  of 
introducing  and  knowing  the  surrounding  world." 

So  much  for  Froebel,  who  clearly  saw  the 
function  of  the  Ball  in  the  above-mentioned  rela- 
tion. But  that  which  is  wanting  is  the  order  in 
which  the  environing  world  is  taken  up  by  the 
Ego  of  the  child.  Here  again  the  psychological 
process  is  to  furnish  the  ordering  principle, 
which  will  show  how  the  total  physical  universe 
in  its  outlines  is  received  into  the  child-mind 
through  the  Ball.  But  this  part  of  the  subject 
cannot  now  be  entered  upon,  though  something 
about  it  may.be  given  in  another  place. 

In  conclusion,  we  may  take  a  glance  back  over 
the  total  sweep  of  the  First  Gift  and  seek  to  re- 
new the  various  thoughts  which  have  been  set 
forth.  The  earnest  student  will  reflect  upon  the 
following  points :  — 

It  is  the  Potential  Gift  of  the  whole  series  of 
Gifts  and  Occupations. 

It  is  the  first  stage  of  the  complete  Psychosis 
of  Froebel's  Play-gifts,  namely,  the  Gifts  and 
Occupations. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIRST.        41 

It  unfolds  the  psychology  of  the  Ball  in  rela- 
tion to  the  mind  of  the  child. 

The  educative  meaning  of  the  First  Gift  must 
be  seen  in  this  relation. 

It  shows  the  transition  from  the  simple  Ball 
with  Center,  Periphery,  and  Radius,  to  the  con- 
crete Sphere  with  central  Point,  diametral  Line, 
and  intersecting  Plane.  This  is,  moreover,  the 
transition  from  the  First  into  the  Second  Gift. 

Three  Balls  having  the  three  primary  colors 
are  recommended  to  be  given  at  first. 

A  subject  left  to  the  further  study  of  advanced 
kindergardners  is  the  child  getting  acquainted 
with  the  external  world  through  the  Ball,  which 
thus  becomes  the  mediating  principle  between 
him  and  the  cosmos. 

*';  • 

At  present,  however,  we,  having  made  the 
transition  from  the  Ball  to  the  Sphere,  shall  pass 
to  the  next  grand  division  of  our  theme. 


CHAPTER  SECOND. 

THE  GIFTS  (QUANTITATIVE). 

This  chapter  embraces  the  Gifts  which  lie  be- 
tween the  Sphere  and  the  Point,  or  the  series 
which  begins  with  the  Second  Gift  and  ends 
with  the  Tenth  Gift,  according  to  the  usual 
numbering. 

As  already  stated,  the  general  idea  underlying 
the  Gift  is  something  given,  taken  for  granted, 
presupposed,  prescribed ;  it  is  composed  of  fixed 
forms  given  to  the  child  which  he  is  to  take  and 
combine  into  new  forms  through  his  activity, 
mental  and  bodily.  Then  he  will  pass  to  trans- 
forming his  material,  and  to  making  the  forms 
hitherto  given,  which  work,  however,  properly 
belongs  to  the  Occupations  (qualitative  Gifts). 
But  the  pre.sent  series  of  Gifts  (quantitative) 
(42) 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— QUANTITATIVE.    43 

has  the  principle  of  extension,  is  space-occupy- 
ing, and  produces  its  new  forms  by  external 
combination. 

The  fundamental  fact  in  this  series  of  Gifts  is 
its  inner  psychical  movement,  which,  in  deep  cor- 
respondence with  the  movement  of  the  child's 
mind,  is  threefold,  and  reveals  what  may  be  called 
the  Psychosis  of  the  Quantitative  Gifts. 

I.  THE    ORIGINATIVE     GIFT.     This     is    the 
Second  Gift,  composed  of  the  Sphere,  Cube,  and 
Cylinder.     Its    essential  characteristic   is    origi- 
native, genetic ;  it  generates  its  own  forms  within, 
and  generates  in  direct  line  the  other  forms  of 
this  series  till  the  Point.     It  is  thus  the  parent 
Gift  of  the  whole  family,  in  which  the  domestic 
relations  will  often  be  employed  by  way  of  met- 
aphor.    Also  it  may   be   deemed  the  potential 
Gift  of  this  series,  bearing  in  itself  implicitly  all 
those  which  follow.     Such  is  the  first  or  imme- 
diate stage,  which  is  now  to  unfold ;   origination 
must  separate  from  itself  and  pass   into  deriva- 
tion, which  is  the  second  or  separative  stage. 

II.  THE  DERIVED  GIFTS.     The  name  indicates 
the  general  character  of  this  division  of  the  Gifts 
which  embraces  all  the  rest  of  the  quantitative 
series  after  the  Originative  Gift.     The  method 
of  derivation  is  some  form  of  separation,  hence 
all  these  Gifts  belong  to  the  second  or  separative 
stage  of   the   Psychosis  in    the    present  series, 
though  each  has  its  own  distinctive  Psychosis  or 


44  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

threefold  movement,  all  of  which  is  to  be  un- 
folded hereafter. 

It  may  here  be  stated,  however,  that  this  Derived 
Series  has  its  own  threefold  process,  which  starts 
with  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude  (real  or 
sensuous  separation)  and  passes  to  the  Gifts  of 
Abstract  Magnitude  (ideal  or  mental  separation), 
with  the  final  return  out  of  the  Abstract  to  the 
Concrete. 

In  this  division  lies  the  main  body  of  the  quan- 
titative Gifts,  which  unfold  to  the  Point  as 
explicit,  where  begins  a  new  stage,  that  of 
return. 

III.  THE  RETURN  TO  THE  ORIGINATIVE  GIFT. 
Out  of  Derivation  we  pass  back  to  Origination 
through  the  Point,  which,  though  at  first 
derived,  becomes  self -moving  and  generative, 
producing  the  Sphere  and  its  central  Point. 
Thus  we  see  that  the  movement  of  the  quantita- 
tive Gifts  is  from  Point  to  Point,  going  forward 
to  the  Point  and  then  returning  to  the  Point,  as 
the  seed  unfolding  through  the  vegetable  process 
returns  to  the  seed,  producing  the  same,  that  is, 
producing  itself.  Such  is  the  completed  cycle 
of  the  Gifts,  in  a  line  of  descent  and  of  ascent 
or  return,  whereby  the  Point  as  explicit  in  the 
last  of  the  Derived  Gifts  bends  back,  as  it  were, 
and  connects  with  the  Point  as  implicit  in  the 
Originative  Gift. 

The   above   indicates   in   brief   the   psychical 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— QUANTITATIVE.    45 

movement  which  underlies  and  orders  the  pres- 
ent (quantitative)  series  of  Gifts,  showing  their 
inner  conformity  to  the  mind  of  the  child  and 
revealing  the  ground  of  their  educative  character. 

In  every  Gift  as  quantitative  there  will  be 
some  phase  of  Form,  Number,  Measure. 

The  quantitative  Gifts  deal  primarily  with 
geometric  or  spatial  forms,  by  which  man  gets 
the  first  control  of  external  nature.  The  child 
must  follow  in  his  footsteps.  Geometry  is  the 
science  of  Space,  into  whose  presence  the  child 
is  brought  by  the  first  act  of  his  existence,  the 
act  of  birth.  The  child  begins  his  mastery  of 
the  space-world  and  with  it  of  the  whole  realm 
of  externality,  through  these  Gifts,  which  induct 
him  into  the  knowledge  of  Form. 

But  they  also  develop  in  him  the  conception  of 
Number,  which  is  an  abstraction  from  Form,  or  is 
indifferent  to  it.  Thus  he  is  getting  his  release 
from  the  sense- world,  and  begins  to  employ 
abstract  or  ideal  things.  The  child  learns  count- 
ing in  these  Gifts,  and  becomes  acquainted  with 
the  integer  and  the  fraction.  Arithmetical 
operations  he  performs  with  the  blocks,  combin- 
ing and  dividing  numbers. 

Likewise  he  obtains  in  these  Gifts  the  very 
important  idea  of  Measure,  which  is  an  applica- 
tion of  Number  to  Form,  whereby  the  latter  is 
measured  or  reduced  to  the  terms  of  mind. 
Measuring  is  a  kind  of  smelting  of  the  things 


46  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

of  the  solid  world,  and  pouring  them  into  the 
ideal  moulds  of  the  spirit,  by  which  they  can 
ever  afterwards  be  handled  mentally.  An  old 
philosopher  regarded  all  thinking  as  a  measuring, 
and  one  definition  of  man  has  pronounced  him 
to  be  supremely  the  Measure  (Homo  Mensura). 

Such  are  the  three  quantitative  principles  which 
are  unfolded  from  the  present  series  of  Gifts, 
and  determine  its  name  and  general  character  — 
Form,  Number,  Measure — which  correspond  to 
the  sciences  of  Geometry,  Arithmetic,  Mensura- 
tion (applied  number).  Hence  it  is  evident  that 
the  best  way  to  designate  these  Gifts  is  to  call 
them  quantitative,  which  means  not  simply  geo- 
metrical, or  numerical,  or  measuring,  but  all 
three  and  something  more. 

To  the  foregoing  educative  purposes  of  the 
Gifts  is  often  added  that  of  position  or  location, 
with  the  accompanying  word  which  introduces 
the  teaching  of  language.  These  two  matters, 
indeed,  belong  here,  and  cannot  well  be  left  out. 
Then  conies  the  external  combination  to  produce 
new  forms,  which  properiy  belongs  to  the  Mor- 
phology of  the  Gifts,  a  subject  which  lies  outside 
of  the  scope  of  the  present  book. 

In  the  total  movement  of  the  Play-gifts  (in- 
cluding all  the  Gifts  and  Occupations)  the  quan- 
titative series  belongs  to  the  second  stage  of  the 
Psychosis,  as  it  deals  primarily  with  the  spatial, 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS. -QUANTITATIVE.    47 

the  extended,  the  external  element  of  nature. 
But  chiefly,  its  first  principle  is  origination,  that 
is,  separation,  which  is  an  unfolding  of  that 
which  was  before  implicit,  a  making  real  of  that 
which  was  before  potential.  This  character  we 
shall  at  once  see  in  the  Second  Gift,  the  starting- 
point  of  the  series,  being  that  which  distinguishes 
it  from  the  First  Gift,  which  is  not  directly  origi- 
native, or  separative,  though  it  has  six  different 
objects.  If  these  were  derived  in  any  way  from 
one  another,  the  First  Gift  would  be  internally 
orginative.  Still  the  First  Gift  has  slumbering 
within  itself,  baby  that  it  is,  all  the  potentialities 
which  are  hereafter  to  become  realities ;  in  this 
sense  it  has  also  a  genetic  power,  though  som- 
nolescent. 

The  Second  Gift  may  be  well  regarded  as  the 
most  important  of  all  the  Play-gifts  of  Froebel, 
quantitative  or  qualitative;  it,  therefore,  deserves 
the  most  thought  and  the  fullest  treatment.  In  it 
must  be  seen  and  felt  the  creative  Idea  at  work, 
being  a  kind  of  demiurge  or  world-creator,  pos- 
sessing the  divinely  active  spark  of  genesis,  out 
of  which  moves  forth  the  cosmos.  Nor  can  we 
ever  forget  the  marvelous  conception  of  an  old 
Greek  philosopher,  Empedocles,  who  actually 
deified  the  Sphere,  calling  it  the  God  Sphairos, 
who  is  the  beginning  of  all  things,  who  is  the 
perfect  and  concordant  union  of  all  the  elements 


48  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

in  a  kind  of  pre-established  divine  harmony, 
into  which,  however,  discord,  separation,  war,  is 
finally  to  enter.  Such  a  divinity,  we  may  almost 
imagine,  to  be  presiding  over  Froebel's  little 
cosmos  of  Play-gifts  for  the  little  child,  whom 
they  take  literally  by  the  hand  and  lead  step  by 
step  into  the  grand  cosmos  of  which  he  is  a  mem- 
ber, and  in  which  he  is  to  play  a  part. 


I. 

THE    SECOND    GIFT    (OEIGINATIVE) . 

The  Second  Gift,  then,  we  call  the  Originative 
Gift,  since  this  term  suggests  its  genetic  charac- 
ter. In  it  we  may  note  a  kind  of  triple  genesis 
or  three  stages  of  the  creative  process. 

First,  it  starts  with  the  Sphere  which,  as  dis- 
tinct from  the  Ball,  has  within  itself  its  own 
creative  movement,  as  Center,  Periphery, 
Radius. 

Secondly,  this  Sphere  generates  out  of  itself 
the  Cube  and  Cylinder,  the  whole  constituting 
the  three  forms  of  the  Second  Gift. 

Thirdly,  these  three  forms  generate  the  other 
Gifts  of  the  quantitative  series  (Third  to  Tenth 
inclusive). 

4  (49) 


50  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Thus  we  behold  the  Second  Gift  in  three 
phases  of  creative  energy  —  the  creation  of  the 
Sphere,  the  creation  of  the  Gift,  the  creation  of 
the  series  of  Gifts  (quantitative).  An  inner 
generative  power  we  see  at  first,  and  then  an 
outer,  producing  other  Gifts.  Yet  it  is  always 
to  be  emphasized  that  these  genetic  principles  of 
the  Second  Gift  are  inherently  connected.  If  it 
had  no  inner  creative  energy,  it  would  have  no 
outer ;  its  external  production  is  but  the  mani- 
festation of  its  internal  activity.  Thus  it  is  like 
man,  like  the  Ego,  which  has  its  own  creative 
process  (the  Psychosis)  whereby  it  becomes  the 
productive  source  of  manifold  works  in  the 
world.  The  inner  genesis  not  only  precedes  but 
necessitates  the  outer  genesis. 

In  accordance  with  the  educative  movement 
already  unfolded,  the  present  series  of  Gifts 
should  start  with  a  Gift  which  contains  implicitly 
the  whole  series,  and  from  which  all  the  other 
Gifts  of  the  series  should  come  forth  by  an 
inner  evolution.  Then  the  movement,  when 
completed,  should  return  to  its  origin,  and  psy- 
chically justify  the  same  by  such  return. 

So,  we  must  observe  that  this  Second  Gift  is 
also  the  potential  Gift  of  its  series ;  as  the  First 
Gift,  already  described,  is  the  potential  Gift  of 
the  total  sweep  of  all  the  Gifts  and  Occupations, 
so  the  Second  Gift,  being  likewise  a  starting- 
point  and  a  germ  of  beginning  and  becoming,  is 


FEOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS  —THE  SECOND.      51 

the  potential  Gift  of  the  entire  quantitative 
series. 

The  Second  Gift  is  composed  of  three 
shapes  —  Sphere,  Cube,  and  Cylinder,  made  of 
wood.  They  are  perforated  in  such  a  manner 
that  they  can  be  made  to  whirl  and  to  perform 
various  kinds  of  movement.  The  triplicitv  is 
the  foremost  outer  fact  here,  which  fact,  how- 
ever, must  be  finally  justified  by  an  inner  reason. 

1.  The  Ball  (Sphere}.  This  has  been  already 
so  fully  treated  in  the  preceding  Gift,  that  very 
little  need  be  added.  It  is  essentially  a  repeti- 
tion, yet  in  a  new  relation.  It  is  now  taken  as 
the  source  of  the  present  series  of  Gifts,  which 
are  inherently  quantitative,  not  qualitative. 
Hence  the  Ball  is.  at  present  to  be  considered,  as 
far  as  possible,  without  its  properties. 

Still  it  has,  and  must  have,  properties,  being  a 
material  object,  and  these  properties  are  first  to 
be  looked  at  briefly,  in  contrast  especially  with 
the  preceding  Ball.  The  former  is  much  softer 
than  the  latter;  one  is,  however,  smoother,  less 
elastic  than  the  other  or  may  be ;  the  First  Gift 
is  many-colored,  the  Second  has  only  one  color, 
which  is  or  may  be  retained  throughout  the  whole 
series.  Then  the  hard  Ball  gives  forth  a  much 
louder  sound  when  pounded  with  on  the  table  or 
thrown  upon  the  floor,  than  the  soft  Ball —  a  fact 
strongly  insisted  on  by  some  kindergardners. 
Still  the  child  has  been  introduced  to  the  sound- 


62  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

world  by  the  soft  Ball,  which  also  has  its  little 
cry  when  punched  or  assailed.  Finally  a  verbal 
distinction  is  sought  to  be  maintained  between 
the  two  by  calling  the  one  a  Ball  and  the  other  a 
Sphere  or  Globe,  in  correspondence  with  German 
usage  in  the  present  case. 

Still,  though  these  contrasts  hold  good,  we 
are  to  see  just  by  means  of  them  that  the 
property  of  the  Ball  is  not  now  the  main 
thing,  is  quite  an  indifferent  thing,  is,  in 
fact,  even  that  which  we  are  henceforth  to 
take  away  in  thought.  In  other  words  the  ab- 
straction is  to  be  made  from  the  qualitative,  and 
the  stress  is  to  be  placed  upon  the  quantitative, 
the  extended,  the  spatial.  For  this  is  what  is 
most  immediately  present  to  the  senses  of  the 
child,  and  is  the-  first  element  of  the  external 
world  which  he  is  called  upon  to  master. 

The  Ball,  having  been  brought  over  from  the 
First  Gift  to  the  Second,  is  next  to  bo  seen  as 
the  point  of  departure  for  the  latter.  What  is 
implicit  within  it,  is  to  become  explicit;  what 
constitutes  its  inner  essence  is  to  be  externalized 
and  to  be  made  visible'.  What  are  the  implicit 
elements  which  the  Ball  must  now  make  explicit 
and  manifest  to  the  senses? 

In  the  Ball  (or  the  Sphere)  there  are  three 
inner  elements :  — 

(1.)  The  central  Point,  from  which  the  ro- 
tundity of  the  Sphere  is  determined. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  QIFTS.-THE  SECOND.      53 

(2.)  The  diametral  Line,  in  the  middle  of 
which  is  the  central  Point  fixed  between  two 
radii. 

(3.)  As  a  solid,  the  Sphere  must  have  the 
three  dimensions  —  length,  breadth,  height  — 
represented  by  three  Planes  passing  through  the 
Sphere  at  right  angles  in  the  three  different 
directions.  —  The  intersecting  Plane. 

To  these  inner  elements  we  may  add  in  thought 
the  external  periphery,  into  which  they  are  to  be 
brought. 

Thus  we  have  the  Point,  Line,  and  Plane,  as 
internal  in  the  Sphere,  not  visible,  not  explicit. 
Moreover,  the  Point  is  fixed  in  the  Line,  the 
Line  is  fixed  in  the  Plane,  and  the  Plane  is  fixed 
in  the  solid.  Now  all  these  are  to  come  out  and 
to  manifest  themselves  in  a  shape  which  we  are 
soon  to  see. 

Here  we  may  introduce  into  this  Gift  a  valu- 
able help,  the  so-called  skeleton  Sphere  made 
of  paper.  Its  object  is  to  render  visible  these 
invisible  elements  of  the  Sphere,  and  thus  to 
bring  home  to  the  mind  through  the  senses  what 
is  really  supersensuous.  Three  round  discs  of 
paper  are  taken,  representing  three  planes,  and 
incisions  are  to  be  made  into  them  that  they  can 
be  brought  to  intersect  with  one  another  at  right 
angles  round  the  center.  Thus  we  see  the  inner 
elements — the  Plane,  the  Line,  the  Point — of 
the  Sphere  in  their  relation. 


54  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

But  the  destiny  of  what  is  implicit  is  that  it 
become  explicit;  the  potential  is  to  be  made 
real;  the  internal  invisible  secret  is  to  be  re- 
vealed and  brought  to  light ;  the  undiff  ereneed 
is  to  be  differentiated.  Such  is  the  inner  process 
of  the  spirit  and  the  outer  process  of  the  world, 
which  is  not  only  a  reflection  but  a  creation  of 
the  spirit.  From  the  Sphere  we  pass  to  the 
opposite. 

2.  The  Cube.  We  remember  that  the  Sphere 
has  as  its  internal  unseen  determinant  the  point 
at  the  center.  This  Point  is  now  separated  from 
its  position  at  the  center,  and  is  brought  to  the 
surface ;  such  is  the  fundamental  separation  which 
next  takes  place,  wherein  we  see  the  second  stage 
of  the  Psychosis. 

But  what  happens?  That  central  Point, 
brought  to  the  surface  of  the  Sphere,  must  destroy 
its  rotundity,  since  this  is  what  is  determined  by 
that  central  Point  with  its  radius.  When  the 
unseen  center  is  brought  into  the  seen  periphery, 
then  the  periphery  in  its  turn  can  be  no  longer 
seen,  but  becomes  ideal,  a  possibility.  Thus  the 
seen  and  the  unseen  change  places. 

The  Cube  is  the  Ball  (or  Sphere)  turned  in- 
side out.  The  Point,  Line,  Plane,  implicit  and 
invisible  in  the  Sphere,  are  explicit  and  visible  in 
the  Cube  with  its  eight  corners,  twelve  edges,  and 
six  surfaces.  The  inner  essence  of  the  Sphere 
is  externalized,  realized,  uttered  (outered)  in  the 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— TEE  SECOND.     55 

Cube.  We  may  look  at  this  transition  in  a  little 
more  detail,  in  order  to  bring  out  its  importance, 
since  the  genetic  movement  of  the  quantitative 
Gifts  has  its  starting-point  just  here. 

(1.)  The  central  Point  conies  first,  which  we 
have  just  noticed  in  its  inner,  hidden,  undevel- 
oped state,  and  have  seen  it  thrown  out  into  the 
periphery  which  it  previously  determined  as  outer. 

What  brings  about  this  separation?  It  is  a 
necessity  of  thought  as  well  as  of  thing,  it  is  the 
inherent  process  of  the  Ego  as  well  as  of  the 
Universe.  What  lies  in  the  Ball  (or  Sphere) 
must  come  out ;  it  has  to  express  itself,  else  it 
would  not  be  Nature's;  it  is  as  natural  for  the 
Sphere  to  burst  forth  into  the  Cube  as  it  is  for  the 
seed  to  grow.  What  is  ideal  is  under  an  eternal 
strain  to  become  real ;  the  potential,  always  big 
with  the  actual,  must  at  last  give  birth  to  its 
child. 

(2.)  The  diametral  Line  will  also  be  brought 
to  the  surface  with  the  central  Point,  which 
brings  with  itself  to  visibility  its  invisible  con- 
stituent. For  the  center  of  the  Sphere  is  the  cen- 
ter of  two  radii  or  of  the  diameter  of  the  Sphere, 
also  inner  and  unseen;  this  diameter  is  made 
external  and  visible  along  with  the  center,  which 
cannot  be  without  it.  That  is,  the  central  Point 
cannot  be  separated  from  its  diametral  Line, 
which  conditions  it,  and  so  both  come  to  the 
periphery,  when  the  inner  is  to  be  made  outer. 


56  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Moreover,  this  diametral  line  is  a  straight  line, 
the  shortest  way  between  its  two  ends ;  it  is  a 
right  line,  and  all  that  it  determines  is  rectilineal. 
This  is  the  opposite  of  the  curved  surface  hitherto 
visible.  Now  when  this  right  line  conies  into  this 
spherical  surface  and  determines  it,  the  sphericity 
must  fall  away,  and  become  straightened;  the 
surface  is  rectilineal  throughout,  that  is,  a  plane 
surface  bounded  by  right  lines. 

Still,  one  Point  and  one  diametral  Line,  ex- 
ternalized in  the  periphery,  cannot  remain  alone 
therein,  without  effect;  they  are  genetic,  and,  in 
order  to  be  at  all,  they  must  transform  the  entire 
periphery  of  the  Sphere,  which  cannot  exist  half 
curved  and  half  straight.  The  generative  prin- 
ciple of  the  Sphere,  namely,  the  Point  with  its 
Line,  has  come  to  the  surface  and  generates  the 
same  anew,  determining  it  and  dividing  it  up 
into  corners,  edges,  faces,  with  just  as  many  of 
each  as  it  is  capable  of.  For  the  central  Point 
with  its  radii  determines  the  whole  periphery,  not 
a  part  of  it ;  so  the  whole  periphery  must  yield 
to  the  new  deter niinant. 

(3.)  The  three  intersecting  Planes  of  the 
Sphere,  representing  the  three  inherent  dimen- 
sions of  the  solid,  must  also  be  externalized  and 
brought  out  into  the  periphery.  With  these 
Planes  passing  into  the  surface,  its  rotundity  must 
vanish  and  be  divided  up  into  a  number  of  faces 
or  sides  of  the  Cube. 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS. -THE  SECOND.      57 

In  like  manner  we  saw  rotundity  disappear 
when  the  Point  was  made  explicit,  and  also  when 
the  Line  came  forth  into  the  surface.  Still  more 
distinctly,  when  this  third  element,  the  Plane,  is 
brought  into  the  periphery,  does  the  spherical 
drop  down  to  the  flat  surface. 

The  fact  is,  however,  that  all  these  elements, 
the  Point,  the  Line,  the  Plane,  belong  together 
in  the  Sphere;  the  Plane  passes  through  the 
diametral  Line,  and  this  diametral  Line  passes 
through  the  Point,  which  lies  in  its  middle.  All 
three  elements  must  come  out  together  and  form 
the  faces,  edges,  and  corners  of  the  Cube. 

We  shall  next  consider  the  number  and  the 
various  relations  of  these  elements  when  exter- 
nalized in  the  Cube.  In  the  first  place,  each 
dimension  in  the  form  of  an  inner  Plane,  passing 
through  and  intersecting  with  the  other  two 
dimensions  in  the  form  of  Planes,  divides  with- 
in itself  and  moves  in  an  opposite  direction 
toward  and  into  the  surface,  in  which  it  produces 
the  six  (three  times  two)  faces.  In  the  second 
place,  each  diametral  Line,  formed  by  the  inter- 
section of  two  Planes  in  the  middle  of  the 
Sphere,  will  be  in  each  of  those  Planes,  will 
divide  within  itself  and  move  toward  and  into 
the  surface,  where  will  be  formed,  as  there  are 
three  such  intersecting  diametral  Lines,  the 
twelve  edges  of  the  Cube  (two  times  two  times 
three).  In  the  third  place,  these  same  dimen- 


58  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

sions  in  the  form  of  intersecting  Planes  of  the 
Sphere  form  eight  inner  corners  round  the  central 
Point,  there  being  two  bi-sections  (halving  and 
quartering)  of  each  Plane  (two  times  two  times 
two).  These  inner  corners  externalized  become 
the  corners  of  the  Cube. 

Let  us  illustrate.  Take  some  round  object 
(apple,  orange,  potato)  which  is  easily  divided; 
cut  it  in  the  three  directions  indicated,  each  cut 
may  be  conceived  as  a  Plane  passing  through  the 
object  at  right  angles  to  the  other  two  cuts  or 
Planes  in  the  center.  You  will  notice  at  once 
the  eight  pieces  with  their  corners  around  the 
central  Point ;  these  separated  and  brought  to 
the  surface  opposite  are  the  eight  separate  cor- 
ners of  the  Cube.  Secondly,  observe  the  three 
diametral  Lines  formed  by  the  cross-cuts  of  the 
Planes  through  the  center;  further  note  that 
each  such  Line  is  in  two  of  the  Planes ;  finally 
separate  each  of  these  Lines  as  Line  in  each 
Plane  and  move  it  outward  to  the  surface ;  by 
such  act  of  separation  you  generate  the  twelve 
edges.  Thirdly,  take  the  three  Planes  inter- 
secting inwardly,  divide  them  as  Planes  and 
move  them  in  each  direction  outward,  and  you 
have  the  six  faces  of  the  Cube.  In  this  way  we 
see  the  Point,  Line,  Plane  in  separation,  which, 
however,  must  be  united  and  in  position  that 
they  all  form  the  Cube. 

Each  of  these  pieces  with  its  corner  can  be 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.  59 

transformed  by  the  same  general  process  into  a 
small  Cube,  making  eight  in  all,  which  brings  to 
light  the  Third  Gift.  In  each  piece  are  corner, 
edge,  and  face,  as  yet  not  developed  into  their 
perfect  fulfillment  in  form;  still,  they  are  all 
generative  in  thought,  and  will  unfold  into  their 
complete  reality  in  the  Cube. 

This  movement  of  separation  in  the  three 
Planes  is  essentially  the  same,  though  in  different 
directions.  We  may  discriminate  these  direc- 
tions in  the  various  Planes  by  the  use  of  terms : 
up  and  down  for  the  separation  in  the  horizontal 
Plane,  right  and  left  for  the  same  in  the  front 
perpendicular  Plane,  to  and  fro  for  the  same  in 
the  cross-perpendicular  Plane.  These  terms  may 
also  be  used  to  distinguish  the  separative  move- 
ments of  the  Line  and  Point,  as  they  go  out  to 
the  surface  in  opposite  directions. 

Still  another  illustration  may  be  employed  in 
this  connection  —  the  skeleton  Sphere  already 
described,  or,  when  its  corners  are  attached,  the 
skeleton  Cube.  This  figure  is  the  counterpart  of 
the  solid,  since  it  brings  out  the  ideal  elements  — 
Plane,  Line,  Point —  and  makes  them  material. 
The  skeleton,  usually  hidden  in  the  body,  is  here 
made  visible,  external,  hence  the  name.  We 
look  through  the  solid,  as  it  were,  and  behold  its 
inner  workings.  We  see  the  eight  corners  clus- 
tered round  their  central  Point;  we  see  the  three 
diametral  Lines  in  their  six  Planes  moving  out- 


60  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

ward  and  forming  the  twelve  edges ;  finally  we 
see  the  three  intersecting  Planes  dividing  within 
and  going  forth  into  their  external  position  as  the 
six  faces  of  the  Cube.  To  be  sure  this  genetic 
vision  is  ideal,  but  it  always  lies  back  of  and 
creates  the  real. 

We  may  remark  in  passing,  that  it  does  not 
help  along  very  much  to  call  this  inner  external- 
izing principle  a  force,  as  the  scientists  and  cer- 
tain philosophers  do,  and  as  Froebel  sometimes 
(though  not  always)  does.  For  we  have  to  ask 
what  is  this  force?  We  find  that  it  is  usually 
conceived  as  some  outside  energy,  not  to  be 
thought  of  any  further,  or  openly  declared  to  be 
unknowable.  So  the  difficulty  is  simply  thrown 
back  one  step  and  dropped.  Force  itself  must 
be  put  under  thought,  as  well  as  the  process  of 
the  Sphere  which  it  seeks  to  explain.  Force,  in 
so  far  as  it  means  anything,  is  ultimately  a  phase 
of  the  Ego,  especially  of  the  Will,  without  which 
force  could  not  be  nor  be  conceived  to  be.  It  is 
the  Ego  which  has  within  itself  this  inner  power 
of  separation,  externalization,  manifestation,  to 
which  the  material  universe  corresponds  and  of 
which  it  is  primarily  the  creation.  And  so,  in 
order  to  understand  the  present  movement  of  the 
Sphere,  we  have  to  identify  it  with  the  move- 
ment of  the  Ego,  to  make  it  a  part  of  ourselves ; 
thus  we  psychologize  it  and  come  to  know  it  truly, 
first  integrating  it  with  ourselves  and  then  sep- 


FKOEBEISS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      61 

arating  and  distinguishing  it,  as  it  is  in  itself.  We 
may,  therefore,  refrain  from  injecting  force  as 
an  explanation  of  the  present  process,  as  that  is 
an  explanation  which  explains  nothing,  and 
which  is  itself  in  sore  need  of  explanation. 

Accordingly  we  always  come  back  to  the  Ego 
in  its  thinking,  creative  activity,  as  the  primal 
source  of  things.  We  have  illustrated  the  sub- 
ject previously  both  by  a  solid  and  by  a  skeleton 
figure ;  still  we  have  to  return  to  the  thought  of 
this  transition  from  Sphere  to  Cube,  in  order  to 
be  fully  satisfied.  For  thought  is  the  creative 
principle  of  the  universe,  and  is  what  really 
creates  the  Cube  from  the  Sphere.  This  thought 
is  what  we  are  to  take  up  into  ourselves,  and  we 
may  re-iterate  briefly  its  main  steps : — 

(a.)  The  periphery  of  the  Sphere  is  deter- 
mined by  the  central  Point  with  its  radius. 

(ft.)  This  Point  is  determined  as  central  by 
being  in  the  middle  of  two  radii  which  constitute 
the  diametral  Line. 

(c.)  This  Point  with  its  diametral  Line  is 
brought  to  the  surface,  whose  rotundity  falls 
away. 

(d..y  The  whole  rotundity  must  vanish,  as  the 
whole  periphery  was  determined  by  this  Point 
and  Line. 

(e.)  The  three  dimensions  as  Planes  are 
brought  to  the  surface,  in  which  they  become 
sides. 


62  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

(  f. )  So  we  find  the  Point,  Line,  and  Plane  of 
the  Sphere  separated  and  externalized  in  the 
Cube  in  eight  corners,  twelve  edges,  and  six  sides. 

Another  noticeable  fact  is  the  duality  of  these 
three  elements  in  the  Cube.  That  is,  the  Point, 
Line,  and  Plane,  arc  not  lost  even  in  the  Cube, 
they  are  both  inner  and  outer ;  the  Cube  has  still 
the  central  Point,  the  diametral  Line,  the  inter- 
secting Planes.  But  these  are  at  present  mere 
shadows,  though  they  once  determined  the 
Sphere;  they  are  now  cast  out  of  power,  reduced 
to  a  kind  of  ghosts  which  love  to  haunt  the  scene 
of  their  former  glory.  So  the  Cube  has  still  the 
spectral  counterparts  of  the  actual  Plane,  Line, 
Point,  holding  both  elements  together  in  a  sort 
of  union  which  is  like  that  of  soul  and  body. 
Still  even  these  ghostly  forms  will  again  see  the 
light  of  day  in  the  Third  Gift,  which  makes  a 
new  division  of  the  Cube  through  Plane,  Line, 
and  Point,  transforming  these  hidden  elements 
once  more  into  visible  corners,  edges,  sides  of 
smaller  Cubes.  So  there  is  a  re-incarnation ;  but 
this  second  body  in  each  case  projects  a  second 
shadow  of  itself,  and  the  duality  above  men- 
tioned clings  to  the  reproduced  forms.  All  this 
must  be  regarded  as  characteristic  of  the  separa- 
tion which  lies  in  the  origin  and  nature  of  the 
Cube. 

Accordingly,  this  transition  from  the  Point 
through  the  Sphere  to  the  Cube  must  ultimately 


FBOEBEVS  PLAY  CUFTK.—TTIE  SECOND.      63 

be  grasped  as  thought,  not  as  image.  For  the 
image  is  the  copy  of  the  visible,  while  this  tran- 
sition is  just  the  movement  from  the  invisible  to 
the  visible.  At  any  rate  the  Point  not  having 
length,  breadth,  or  thickness,  cannot  be  out- 
wardly seen,  but  must  be  inwardly  conceived, 
concerning  which  fact  something  will  be  said 
hereafter  when  we  come  to  the  explicit  Point  at 
the  end  of  the  Gifts.  The  distinction  between 
thought  and  image,  or  between  the  creative  and 
representative  activities,  makes  itself  felt  in  the 
mentioned  transition,  but  we  need  not  develop  it 
now. 

An  intermediate  form  between  the  Cube  and 
Ball  was  introduced  by  Froebel,  and  has  emphat- 
ically asserted  its  place  to  the  present  time.  This 
form  we  are  to  consider  next. 

3.  The  Cylinder.  If  the  edge  of  the  Cube  be 
made  to  revolve,  that  is,  to  return  into  itself,  a 
round  surface  will  be  generated,  but  as  linear, 
and  every  edge  of  the  Cube  will  disappear.  The 
two  corners  will  describe  two  circular  edges, 
which  will  bound  the  two  flat  sides  and  the  round 
surface  just  mentioned.  The  result  will  be  the 
Cylinder  —  a  linear  Sphere  or  a  spherical  Line. 
The  explicit  diametral  Line  (not  the  implicit) 
generates  its  round  solid  which  will  be  the  Cylin- 
der, not  the  Sphere.  It  is  the  edge  of  the  Cube 
seeking,  as  it  were,  to  return  to  the  Sphere,  its 
origin,  rotating  back  toward  the  same  and  carry- 


64  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

ing  the  Cube  along.  Yet  this  Line,  remaining 
explicit,  cannot  reach  the  Sphere,  which  requires 
that  it  be  implicit. 

The  Cylinder,  therefore,  will  roll  easily  in  one 
direction,  that  is,  on  a  line,  wherein  it  betrays  its 
origin.  The  Sphere,  however,  rolls  in  all  direc- 
tions, being  the  possibility  of  all  lines.  When  it 
is  projected  into  a  line,  and  becomes  a  Cylinder, 
it  loses  this  trait  and  rolls  one  way  only.  The 
other  ways  or  directions  are  cut  off  by  the  two 
flat  surfaces  of  the  Cylinder  which  it  has  inher- 
ited from  the  Cube.  Hence  it  stands  firm  on  its 
two  sides  like  a  Cube,  and  rolls  on  its  other  side 
like  a  Ball.  Thus  it  unites  traits  from  both 
ancestors.  Still  the  Cylinder  must  be  seen  com- 
ing from  the  Cube  since  it  has  Line  and  Surfaces 
explicit,  yet  moving  toward  and  coalescing  with 
the  Sphere,  returning  out  of  separation  to  its 
mother,  or  perchance,  to  its  grandmother. 

The  Cylinder,  therefore,  we  should  place  in 
due  order  as  the  third  shape  of  the  Second  Gift, 
coming  through  the  Cube  from  the  Sphere  origi- 
nally, to  which  it  is  returning. 

Thus  we  bring  before  ourselves  the  process  of 
this  Gift  moving  through  its  three  shapes  accord- 
ing to  the  inner  order  of  the  Ego,  though  the 
outer  order  (that  of  the  senses)  is  possible  and 
may  sometimes  be  preferable  with  the  child. 
( See  a  further  discussion  of  this  matter  in  the 
Observations  on  the  present  Gift.) 


FEOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS— THE  SECOND.      65 

On  the  side  of  its  spherical  descent,  we  may 
regard  the  Cylinder  as  the  Sphere  prolonged  into 
its  diametral  Line,  giving  to  the  same  the  length 
of  the  diameter,  yet  without  making  the  central 
Point  explicit  as  a  corner.  The  Cylinder,  as 
already  said,  has  two  round  edges,  showing  the 
two  limits  of  the  diametral  Line,  and  marking 
the  Cylinder  sharply  by  this  Line. 

In  what  order  shall  we  place  the  three  shapes 
of  this  Gift?  The  Cylinder  we  have  already 
grasped  as  the  return  of  the  Cube  to  the  Sphere 
in  the  total  psychical  process  of  the  Second  Gift. 
The  diametral  Line,  explicit  in  the  Cube  as  edge, 
is  conceived  as  going  back  to  its  source,  the  Sphere, 
and  uniting  with  that  in  the  creation  of  a  new 
shape,  which  is  the  Cylinder.  For  this  Line  now 
transmutes  the  Sphere  into  itself  as  a  straight 
line,  so  that  the  whole  Sphere  elongates  itself  or 
straightens  itself  out  into  a  diametral  Line,  which 
newly  generated  body  is  round  as  the  Sphere, 
yet  long  and  straight  as  the  diameter.  So  the 
Cylinder  may  be  regarded  as  the  explicit  diamet- 
ral Line  of  the  Cube  returning  to  its  source,  the 
Sphere,  absorbing  the  same,  and  thus  becoming 
one  with  it.  Note  that  the  rotundity  falls  away 
at  the  ends  of  the  Line,  being  determined  thereto 
by  the  diameter. 

Thus  the  Second  Gift  contains  within  itself 
the  psychical  movement  of  the  Ego,  which  fact 
is  its  final  justification.  In  the  process  of  the 

5 


66  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Ball,  Cube,  and  Cylinder  the  child's  mind  is  un- 
folding out  of  its  implicit,  undeveloped  condition, 
is  being  borne  forth  into  consciousness  out  of  the 
infantile  sleep  of  the  spirit.  From  potentiality 
the  child  is  moving  into  reality  through  this  Gift, 
since  it  is  identifying  itself  with  the  real  world. 
Such  is  the  basic  principle  of  what  is  often  called 
the  symbolism  of  the  Gifts :  the  outer  process  of 
material  shapes  corresponds  to  the  inner  process 
of  the  child's  Ego,  which  he  unfolds  through  an 
ordered  play  with  these  shapes.  Play  it  must  be, 
spontaneous,  yet  not  chaotic  or  capricious  play, 
but  ordered.  The  child  must  learn  to  combine 
liberty  and  law  in  his  play  from  the  beginning. 

It  is  manifest,  however,  that  other  shapes  be- 
side the  Cylinder  are  generated  in  this  return 
of  the  Cube  to  the  Sphere.  Though  they  have 
hardly  yet  been  adopted  into  the  kindergarten 
family,  they  are  often  heard  knocking  at  the  door 
for  admission.  Froebel  himself  seems  not  to 
have  fully  made  up  his  mind  what  to  do  with 
them.  The  two  chief  ones  we  may  look  at  for 
the  sake  of  comparison  and  of  completeness. 

4.  Pyramid  and  Gone.  The  most  direct  prod- 
uct of  the  Cube,  the  first  form  that  it  unfolds  in 
its  return  to  its  source,  is  the  Pyramid  with  the 
square  base.  We  must  conceive  that  in  the 
Pyramid,  the  Cube,  though  starting  to  divide 
within,  still  preserves  the  half  of  itself,  but  has 
to  let  the  other  half  go  and  allow  it  to  be  pro- 


FEOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      67 

jected  into  a  Point,  which  is  the  product  and 
extremity  of  the  inner  diametral  Line.  In  such 
a  projection  the  Pyramid  succeeds  in  keeping  its 
basic  lower  face  whole,  but  it  loses  all  of  its  upper 
face,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  each  of  the 
four  side  faces,  which  come  together  in  the  form 
of  triangles  at  the  apex,  whereby  the  whole  figure 
is  made  to  point  significantly  upward. 

The  Pyramid  shows  a  kind  of  dumb,  stony  strug- 
gle within  itself;  it  is  the  flat-sided,  indifferent 
Cube  broken  up  and  stirred  within  to  aspiration 
which  longs  to  reach  out  beyond  itself,  to  the 
unseen,  to  the  very  Heavens  above,  yet  keeping 
its  bodily  form  as  far  as  possible,  and  still  stand- 
ing squarely  on  the  Earth,  in  spite  of  that 
prophetic  outreach  upward.  The  people  of  the 
Nile  valley  at  one  period  of  their  history  must 
have  had  this  longing  for  the  invisible  with  such  a 
mighty  intensity  that  they  built  it  into  the 
Pyramids  of  Egypt,  the  most  collossal  monu- 
ments of  the  ancient  world. 

The  Cone  is  a  further  step  in  the  return  to  the 
Sphere,  though  it  has,  like  the  Pyramid,  the  Point 
explicit  in  an  apex.  But  it  has  lost  the  four 
basic  Points  or  corners,  and  the  four  straight 
lines  as  edges  are  transformed  into  one  circular 
edge,  and  therewith  the  four  triangular  surfaces 
have  vanished  into  one  round  surface.  It  is 
manifest  that  rotundity  is  getting  the  upper  hand 
over  the  cubical  elements.  The  Cone  is  the 


68  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Pyramid  made  round ;  or  it  is  the  Sphere  pulling 
itself  out  to  a  Point.  There  is  but  one  Point 
explicit  in  the  Cone,  and  that  is  determined  by 
the  inner  diametral  Line,  as  in  the  Pyramid.  Ac- 
cordingly, we  may  derive  the  Cone  from  either 
direction  —  from  the  Cube  or  from  the  Sphere. 
We  may  conceive  of  the  Cone  as  the  central 
Point  of  the  Sphere  projected  into  externality  by 
the  diametral  Line  and  carrying  the  Sphere  along 
to  the  apex,  so  that  rotundity  gets  pointed  in  the 
Cone. 

The  Cylinder  we  have  already  considered,  but 
in  its  present  aspect  we  may  regard  it  as  the  third 
step  in  the  return  from  the  Cube  to  the  Sphere. 
In  it  the  diametral  Line  has  become  explicit  with- 
out any  Point,  so  that  the  Cylinder  may  be  con- 
ceived as  a  Sphere  projected  into  the  diametral 
Line,  having  length  but  no  corner  or  apex  or 
straight  edge.  Make  this  Line  purely  internal 
or  diametral,  and  the  return  to  the  Sphere  is 
completed.  The  Cylinder  is  a  Sphere  which  is  a 
Line,  or  a  Line  which  is  a  Sphere;  or,  as  already 
said,  a  spherical  Line  or  a  linear  Sphere. 

We  have  now  unfolded  the  Second  Gift  in  the 
three  stages  of  its  psychical  process  —  the  imme- 
diate or  potential  (the  Sphere),  the  separative 
or  explicit  (the  Cube),  and  the  returning  and 
uniting  (Cylinder).  But  we  have  found  that 
this  last  or  returning  stage  manifests  within  itself 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      69 

three  steps,    which    are   shown   realized  in   the 
Pyramid,  Cone,  Cylinder. 

Putting  all  these  shapes  together,  we  have  the 
following  succession  briefly  stated :  — 

1.  The  Ball — Point,  Line,  and  Plane  implicit. 

2.  The  Cube  —  Point,  Line,  and  Plane  explicit. 

3.  The  Pyramid  —  the  Cube  projecting  itself 
to  a  Point. 

4.  The  Cone  —  the  Sphere  projecting  itself  to 
a  Point. 

5.  The  Cylinder  —  the  Sphere  projecting  itself 
into  a  Line. 

The  other  distinctions  between  these  shapes, 
as  well  as  their  movement,  have  been  sufficiently 
indicated  already  in  the  preceding  exposition. 

Other  Accessories.  Doubtless  the  Sphere,  Cube, 
and  Cylinder  will  remain  the  heart  of  the  Sec- 
ond Gift,  but  for  the  purpose  of  explaining  and 
unfolding  it  more  fully,  certain  additions  will  be 
made  from  time  to  time.  Beside  the  Pyramid 
and  Cone  already  considered,  which  may  be  in- 
troduced to  the  older  children,  we  mention  other 
accessories,  very  helpful  indeed,  if  not  an  organic 
part  of  the  Gift. 

First  of  all  we  would  place  the  skeleton  Sphere 
and  Cube  before  described.  Both  of  these  forms 
are  most  important  aids  to  the  Second  Gift,  and 
are  also  useful  in  the  First  and  Third.  By  means 
of  these  forms  the  child  sees  embodied  division 


70  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

in  the  paper  planes,  or  embodied  production, 
since  here  the  production  is  by  division.  Also  it 
suggests  one  kind  of  physical  generation,  that  by 
fissiparism,  seen  in  many  protozoans.  Then  the 
whole  shape  suggests  the  cell  or  the  cluster  of 
cells  as  the  primary  type  of  life  which  is  also  a 
physical  reproduction.  The  histologist  tells  us 
that  the  unit  of  human  organism  is  the  cell,  which 
likewise  reproduces  itself  by  division,  separating 
itself  into  two,  four,  and  even  eight  parts,  each 
of  which  becomes  a  cell.  If  this  be  so,  the  skele- 
ton Cube  with  its  eight  cells  is  a  marvelous  image 
of  the  self -reproduction  which  is  always  taking 
place  in  the  living  human  body.  For  the  Cube 
is  seen  dividing  itself  by  means  of  the  planes, 
which  are  walls  of  the  cells,  and  these  again  when 
divided  are  small  Cubes  or  small  cells,  if  you 
please.  Bee-cells,  though  hexagonal  and  not 
usually  clustered  about  a  center,  have  a  similar 
suggestion.  The  round  hornet's  nest  with  its 
multitudinous  cells  can  also  be  compared.  At 
any  rate  these  skeleton  figures  as  a  kind  of  em- 
bodied origination  correspond  deeply  with  the 
originative  character  of  the  Second  Gift  and  are 
very  suggestive  both  to  the  kindergardner  and 
the  child. 

In  the  second  place  we  should  not  fail  to  con- 
sider the  division  by  concentric  layers  or  shells. 
The  Sphere  ought  to  be  seen  in  three  such  layers, 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.     71 

moving  inward  to  the  Point  or  outward  from  the 
Point.  Likewise  the  Cube  and  Cylinder  are  to 
be  similarly  divided.  As  illustrating  the  Point 
projecting  itself  in  all  directions  into  the  Peri- 
phery, the  concentric  Spheres  are  very  signifi- 
cant and  touch  the  child  with  a  peculiar  power, 
showing  the  activity  of  his  own  central  Ego  to 
itself.  For  the  sake  of  derivation,  particularly 
in  the  case  of  the  curvilinear  Gifts,  we  must  have 
the  concentric  Cylinder  whose  sections  give  the 
three  different  arches,  as  well  as  the  rings  of 
Abstract  Magnitude,  which  are  likewise  halved 
and  quartered,  as  well  as  of  different  sizes.  So 
too  the  round  tablets.  And  we  must  add  that 
Froebel,  among  his  mature  thoughts  on  the 
Kindergarden,  unfolds  this  idea  of  concentrism 
in  the  forms  of  the  Second  Gift  —  whereof 
something  will  be  said  later. 

Our  subject  has  now  brought  us  to  a  new  kind 
of  division,  the  outer  or  cross  division  of  the 
inner  or  concentric  division,  separating  the  round 
forms  of  the  latter  into  halves  and  quarters. 

Thus  in  this  Second  Gift  we  see  three  kinds 
of  separation  or  origination.  First  is  the  outer 
one,  by  external  division,  by  fission  or  fissipa- 
rism;  second  in  the  inner  one,  that  of  concen- 
trism; third  is  a  unity  of  the  two,in  which  the 
concentric  forms  are  divided  by  straight  lines. 

Thus  the  Second  Gift  vindicates  again  its  title 


72  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

of  originative ;  also  it  asserts  anew  its  place  as 
the  second  or  separative  stage  of  the  Psychosis 
in  the  total  movement  of  these  Play-gifts  of 
Froebel.  From  it  are  derived  primarily  the  quan- 
titative Gifts  whose  unfolding  is  to  follow  in  due 
order  hereafter. 

Once  more  it  must  be  affirmed  that  the  Second 
Gift  is,  all  in  all,  the  most  important  of  the  whole 
series.  Particularly  should  the  kindergardner 
herself  be  imbued  with  its  spirit;  she  must 
assimilate  its  genetic  nature,  making  the  same 
her  own,  both  through  play  and  thought.  One 
may  well  say  that  the  Second  Gift  is  a  spiritual 
Gift,  it  has  an  inner  life  of  its  own,  which  must 
be  made  outer,  not  so  much  in  its  own  limited 
range  as  in  the  entire  sweep  of  the  Gifts  and 
Occupations,  whose  creative  principle  it  is  in  a 
supreme  sense.  Veritably  it  is  the  soul,  the  rest 
of  them  make  up  the  body,  which  has  little 
meaning  without  the  creative  spark. 

By  way  of  confirming,  expanding,  and  illus- 
trating what  has  been  said  upon  this  Gift,  we 
shall  append  some  observations,  into  which  the 
student  will  dip  with  the  hope  possibly  of  catch- 
ing a  few  stray  stimulating  thoughts. 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.     73 


OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  SECOND  GIFT. 

1 .  It  will  be  noticed  by  the  student  that  the 
treatment  of  the  preceding  geometric  forms   is 
different  from  that   of  the  ordinary  geometry. 
The  attempt  here  is  to  generate  them,  one  out  of 
the  other,  and  all  of   them   out   of   a  common 
source.     This  method  is  based  upon  the  convic- 
tion, that  they  have  in  themselves  a  generative 
principle  which  produces  them,  and  it  is  just  this 
principle   that  thought  must   at   last   seize  and 
express,  inasmuch   as   thought   is    the    creative 
energy  in  all  things. 

We  must,  therefore,  reach  into  the  creative 
movement,  which  is  the  soul  of  even  the  geo- 
metric form,  the  latter  being  a  creation  of  an 
Ego,  and  bearing  the  imprint  thereof,  along  with 
the  whole  universe.  It  is  that  genetic  act  which 
we  must  identify  and  know,  producing  the  divine 
process  of  creation  over  again  in  our  thought. 
"God  geometrizes,"  said  the  old  philosopher, 
and  we  must  geometrize  after  Him  in  His  way  in 
order  to  know  Him,  or  even  to  know  geometry. 

2.  The  manner  of  presenting  the  Second  Gift 
has  been  discussed  a  good  deal  by  kindergardners. 
We  have  above  unfolded  the  succession  as  Ball, 


74  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Cube,  and  Cylinder;  but  ought  it  not  to  be  Ball, 
Cylinder,  and  Cube,  inasmuch  as  the  Cylinder 
stands  next  to  the  Ball  in  shape?  The  question 
calls  up  the  whole  subject  of  Methods,  or  the 
order  of  presentation,  upon  which  we  remark  the 
following: — 

(a.)  There  is,  first  of  all,  the  sense-order,  in 
which  the  appearance  of  the  sensuous  impression 
controls  the  method.  We  proceed  in  an  experi- 
mental or  even  chronological  way.  Given  the 
object  to  start  with,  we  take  as  next  in  order 
what  is  most  similar  in  form  or  nearest  in  time  or 
place ;  then  we  pass  to  the  object  which  has  a 
little  greater  difference  from  the  first,  and  so  on 
till  we  reach  the  completely  opposite  object. 
Adopting  such  an  order  in  the  preceding  exposi- 
tion, we  would  have  the  series  Ball,  Cylinder, 
Cone,  Pyramid,  Cube.  First  is  the  least  possible 
difference  and  the  greatest  possible  similarity, 
then  a  little  more  of  the  one  and  a  little  less  of 
the  other ;  so  we  go  on  increasing  the  amount  of 
difference  till  we  land  in  the  realm  of  absolute 
opposition. 

Such  is  the  one  order,  the  sense-order,  the  near- 
est to  the  antecedent  in  form,  time,  place,  hence 
the  easiest  for  the  senses,  or  at  least  generally 
so,  for  there  would  seem  to  be  exceptions  to  the 
rule.  Now  we  shall  glance  at  the  other  kind  of 
order. 

(6.)  This  is  the  thought-order,  which,  given 


FKOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      75 

the  object  to  start  with,  leaps  at  once  to  its  op- 
posite. For  when  you  take  up  difference  into 
thought,  it  is  universal;  when  you  think  dif- 
ference, you  think  all  difference,  not  some  little 
fragment  of  it  scattered  about  somewhere.  But 
the  senses  can  receive  only  some  small  bit  of 
difference  at  a  time ;  in  other  words  the  senses 
are  particular,  while  thought  is  universal.  We 
may  call  this  the  logical  order,  or  even  the  psy- 
chological order,  though  the  latter  is  not  a  good 
expression,  as  psychology  includes  or  ought  to 
include  both  ways,  dealing  with  the  senses  as  well 
as  with  thought. 

The  logical  order,  therefore,  introducing  dif- 
ference into  the  Ball,  demands  that  the  object 
next  in  succession  be  completely  different,  have 
otherness  in  it  at  every  point.  Hence  this  order 
proceeds  from  the  Ball  to  the  Cube,  and  then 
gives  the  return,  revealing  the  Psychosis  in  the 
Second  Gift. 

(c.)  Which  order  is  the  kindergardner  to  use 
with  the  child?  She  is  not  called  upon  to  ex- 
clude absolutely  either,  she  may  use  both. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  child  is  a  sensuous 
being  at  the  start,  yet  has  in  him  the  potentiality 
of  a  spiritual  being ;  he  is  to  rise  from  the  first 
to  the  second.  Moreover,  a  certain  class  of 
minds  remain  sensuous,  experimental,  inductive 
to  the  last,  and  nothing  else ;  yet  even  the  most 
ideal  man  has  or  ought  to  have  a  strain  of  this 


76  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

element  in  him  for  his  own  private  use  in  an 
emergency. 

Most  children  have  doubtless  the  need  of  a 
sense-order  at  the  beginning,  though  some  chil- 
dren seem  to  take  at  once  to  the  thought-order. 
Let  the  kindergardner  know  both  ways,  and 
study  the  needs  of  her  flock ;  let  her  be  willing 
to  employ  one  or  the  other,  without  prejudice  or 
foregone  conclusion.  Yet  so  much  may  be  vig- 
orously affirmed:  the  movement  is  toward  the 
thought-order  as  the  highest,  though  the  sense- 
order  be  used  as  an  educative  means.  In  the 
preceding  exposition  we  have  unfolded  the 
thought-order  for  the  kindergardner,  which  she 
must  understand  that  she  may  know  the  goal  of 
her  labors. 

We  may  compare  the  two  ways  by  an  illustra- 
tion. The  sun  still  rises  for  the  child  as  for  the 
primitive  man,  he  is  controlled  by  what  appears 
to  his  senses  immediately  in  that  case,  he  cannot 
understand  any  other  way.  That  is,  the  child 
is  geocentric  in  his  view  of  the  external  world, 
the  earth  where  he  stands  is  for  him  the  center 
of  the  universe.  Yet  in  due  time  he  must  be- 
come heliocentric,  he  must  make  the  sun  the 
center,  round  which  the  earth  moves.  Thus  he 
must  get  beyond  the  sensuous  appearance,  and 
reconstruct  it  according  to  his  own  inner  vision, 
which  contradicts  so  glaringly  the  outer ;  from 
the  sense-order  of  the  solar  system  he  must  rise 


FBOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.     77 

to  the  thought-order.  But  at  the  start  he  has  to 
dwell  in  the  first. 

Indeed  it  is  a  grand  act  of  self-estrangement 
to  take  the  sun  as  the  center  instead  of  the  earth. 
It  hurls  the  individual  out  of  his  immediate  sense- 
world  of  appearance  and  forces  him  to  create  it 
from  the  standpoint  of  thought.  Incalculable 
has  been  the  value  of  the  training  of  the  Coper- 
nican  theory.  It  compels  a  person  to  change  his 
view  of  the  universe  internally  as  well  as  exter- 
nally, to  pass  from  an  outer  geocentric  vision  to 
an  inner  heliocentric  vision  of  the  grand  cosmical 
order. 

It  may  be  said  that  up  to  the  time  of  Coperni- 
cus and  his  followers,  the  race  had  been 
geocentric,  though  some  of  its  great  spirits  had 
had  a  presentiment  of  the  truth.  Even  the 
church  was  geocentric,  it  fought  for  and  perse- 
cuted for  that  principle  against  heliocentrism. 
The  lower  orders  of  mankind  are  still  geocen- 
tric, to  their  minds  the  sun  "  do  move." 

The  child  has  to  follow  the  movement  of  its 
race  in  this  as  in  so  many  other  respects.  The 
kindergardner  should  understand  the  little  soul 
both  in  its  present  reality  and  in  its  future  possi- 
bility; she  should  give  due  validity  to  both 
procedures,  that  of  the  senses  and  that  of 
thought.  If  she  drops  back  into  the  purely  sen- 
suous method,  she  may  endanger  the  child's 
whole  spiritual  destiny .  Then  she  can  err  on  the 


78  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

other  side  and  pass  out  of  the  horizon  of  the 
child,  who  thus  becomes  listless  and  hopeless. 

We  may  divide  minds  into  geocentric  and  helio- 
centric. In  spite  of  all  culture,  some  keep  to 
the  last  their  terrestrial  center,  round  which  all 
things  revolve,  even  the  celestial  luminary. 

3.  The  Ball  is  found  everywhere  in  Nature, 
while  the  Cube  is  rare  in  Nature.  But  the  mo- 
ment man  begins  to  transform  Nature  for  his 
own  use,  the  cubical  or  at  least  the  cuboidal  form 
begins  to  show  itself.  Especially  when  he  starts 
to  building  his  place  of  abode  or  defense,  the 
round,  independent  shape  has  to  disappear,  while 
the  squared,  close-fitting  block  of  stone  is  laid  as 
the  foundation  of  his  structure,  and  becomes  the 
constituent  of  his  inclosing  wall. 

Accordingly,  the  transition  from  the  Ball  to  the 
Cube  is  almost  the  transition  from  the  nature- 
made  to  the  man-made,  it  suggests  the  rise  from 
the  physical  to  the  spiritual.  The  human  being 
has  to  make-over  the  crude,  material  object,  and 
put  upon  it  his  impress,  and  employ  it  for  his 
purpose.  In  going  from  the  Ball  to  the  Cube, 
the  child  is  starting  on  his  journey  from  senses 
to  spirit,  from  what  is  given  by  the  external 
world  he  is  passing  to  the  creative  principle  of 
mind  and  its  forms. 

The  objection,  therefore,  which  is  often  heard 
from  teachers  unduly  devoted  to  Natural  Science, 
that  the  Cube  is  not  common  in  Nature,  is  really 


FEOEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.  79 

an  argument  for  its  educational  value  when 
rightly  understood.  The  challenging  cry  has 
been  heard  with  a  tone  of  triumph :  ' '  Run  out 
into  the  woods  and  pick  up  a  Cube  if  you  can," 
as  if  that  settled  the  matter.  "Only  in  the 
house,  in  the  city,  in  the  abodes  of  civilized  life 
do  you  find  the  cubical  form  in  abundance,  only 
among  the  artificial  degenerate  works  of  man, 
not  among  the  pure  and  holy  works  of  God." 
Of  course  this  is  again  the  shout  of  Rousseau, 
"  Back  to  Nature,"  a  principle  long  since  utilized 
and  transcended,  though  its  present  advocates 
proclaim  themselves  the  most  advanced  educa- 
tional reformers. 

But  we  strongly  affirm  that  if  the  child  is 
turned  loose  in  Nature  and  allowed  to  pick  up 
any  object  and  play  with  that,  he  is  not  getting 
much  education  —  some  information  doubtless 
but  very  little  education.  If  he  passes  from  the 
Ball  to  a  stick,  or  leaf,  or  lump  of  mud,  he  is 
simply  going  from  one  physical  object  to  another, 
as  caprice  strikes  him ;  it  is  the  movement  from 
like  to  like,  and  that  too,  external.  But  when  the 
child  passes  from  the  Ball  to  the  Cube,  the 
movement  is  from  the  nature-form  toward  a 
thought-form,  and  the  process  is  truly  educative ; 
he  is  going  out  of  a  mere  physical  life  determined 
by  what  he  sees  into  the  life  of  civilization  whose 
grand  function  is  to  transform  the  natural  world. 

To  be  sure,  this  step  is  small,  is  but  the  begin- 


80  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

ning,  and  has  to  be  so,  the  child  being  what  he 
is,  namely  the  beginner.  Still  the  Cube  is  the 
starting-point  for  these  geometric  Gifts,  in  fact 
their  originative  form,  their  germ;  as  they 
unfold,  the  child  unfolds  with  them,  they  are 
the  outer  vehicle  for  his  inner  development. 
In  this  sense  we  may  call  these  Gifts  symbolic, 
they  are  the  external  image  of  his  spirit  in  its 
present  stage,  they  move  as  it  moves ;  they  pick 
it  up,  unite  with  it,  unfold  it,  and  at  last  reflect 
it  back  into  itself,  so  that  it  becomes  self-con- 
scious, as  is  its  destiny. 

This  symbolism  we  may  carry  out  a  little  fur- 
ther in  our  thought.  The  child  is  primarily  a 
Ball,  implicit,  potential,  a  rounded  bud,  seed, 
germ.  But  the  child  is  to  be  a  Cube,  with  all 
its  points  and  directions  made  explicit,  brought 
out,  educated ;  every  innate  power  is  to  be  un- 
folded in  the  right  way  and  in  the  way  of  right. 
Finally  from  this  universal  training  and  this  train- 
ing in  the  universal,  he  is  to  pass  to  his  special 
bent,  to  his  vocation ;  thus  he  is  like  the  Cylin- 
der, Cone,  or  Pyramid,  having  one  point  explicit 
or  one  line ;  still  he  is  to  keep  and  forward  his 
universal  culture  along  with  his  particular  call- 
ing. So  he  becomes  in  life  a  kind  of  union 
between  the  Cube  and  the  Ball. 

4.  The  Second  Gift  has  its  difficulties  for  the 
kindergardners,  whose  resources  are  often  taxed 
to  make  it  interesting  to  the  children.  It  is  cer- 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      81 

tainly  not  rich  in  forms,  having  only  three,  and 
one  of  these  quite  intractable  for  building  or  com- 
bination. Leaving  out  the  Ball-plays,  which 
chiefly  belong  to  the  First  Gift,  we  have  to 
acknowledge  the  dearth  of  the  materials  for 
direct  play.  The  difficulty  is,  therefore,  inherent 
in  the  Gift. 

Still  the  skillful  kindergardner  can  employ  va- 
rious devices  to  help  herself  and  her  children 
into  the  golden  field  of  interest.  Some  of  these 
we  shall  jot  down. 

(a.)  She  can  introduce  the  story  and  set 
a-going  the  child's  imagination  through  her  own. 
The  Cube  can  be  a  little  person  with  a  history ; 
it  can  be  transformed  into  a  variety  of  objects  to 
which  it  bears  some  resemblance.  Herein  an 
excess  is  possible ;  the  child  can  be  trained  to  a 
habit  of  wild  fantastic  dreaming  or  brooding, 
which  may  come  to  distort  or  neglect  the  fact. 

(6.)  Song  can  be  resorted  to,  for  it  has  a 
power  in  its  own  right,  and  will  help  out  in  a 
good  way.  Still  singing  is  not  to  be  overdone, 
it  cannot  take  the  place  of  the  total  educative 
process. 

(c.)  There  are  Cube  games,  which  may  give 
you  much  assistance  in  a  right  manner.  The 
most  common  of  these  is  the  hiding  of  the  faces 
of  the  Cube,  by  means  of  a  handkerchief  or  piece 
of  paper,  and  then  showing  them  successively  in 
various  combinations.  Thus  counting,  guessing, 

6 


82  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP 

calculation,  etc.,  are  introduced  in  a  playful 
way. 

(cL)  But  perhaps  the  most  successful  of  these 
devices  for  assisting  the  Second  Gift  is  what  is 
usually  called  the  whirling  game.  The  three 
forms  are  provided  with  staples  in  which  a  string 
may  be  inserted  for  the  purpose  of  making  the 
object  rotate  rapidly.  The  Cube  when  whirled 
in  this  manner  reverts  to  round  shapes,  to  a 
Cylinder,  a  double  Cone,  and  a  wheel.  The 
Cylinder  revolved  with  a  certain  velocity  has  the 
appearance  of  a  Ball,  in  fact  a  double  Ball.  The 
manuals  describe  a  considerable  variety  of  these 
shapes  of  motion,  which  show  a  tendency  to  the 
round  through  rotation.  That  is,  the  round  move- 
ment of  a  derived  shape  sends  it  back  to  or  toward 
its  original  shape.  But  these  whirling  shapes  are 
shadows,  sometimes  two  or  three  shadows  within 
one  another,  as  if  showing  an  entire  line  of 
ghostly  ancestors  of  the  actual  body.  One  may 
consider  the  whole  process  a  kind  of  idealizing 
the  real,  or  making  the  real  form  show  its  ideal 
relations. 

5 .  The  movement  of  the  Sphere  into  the  Cube 
and  other  rectilineal  shapes,  suggests  crystalliza- 
tion, in  which  Nature  shoots  into  straight  lines. 
Froebel,  as  is  well  known,  was  a  crystallographer 
in  his  earlier  career;  we  see  the  effect  of  his 
studies  on  this  subject  in  his  Education  of  Man, 
as  well  as  in  these  quantitative  Gifts.  He  has 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS —THE  SECOND.      83 

elaborated  the  rectilineal  element  in  four  Gifts 
with  a  loving  fullness,  while  the  curvilineal  ele- 
ment is  not  represented  at  all  in  the  Gifts  of 
Concrete  Magnitude,  as  they  were  left  by  him. 

Moreover  Froebel  was  an  architect,  or  at  least 
a  student  of  architecture,  and  this  influence  may 
be  supposed  to  have  made  itself  felt  in  his  Build- 
ing Gifts.  Man  constructs  primarily  by  means 
of  rectilineal  forms,  making  them  of  brick,  wood, 
stone.  He  cuts  the  native  rock  into  rectangular 
shapes  mostly;  the  early  masonry,  like  the 
Cyclopean,  shows  it  everywhere.  When  he 
builds  of  earth,  sun-baked  or  fire-baked,  it  is  the 
brick.  The  temple  Parthenon  has  blocks  square 
and  oblong  in  its  inclosed  cella,  though  some 
modern  walls  have  broken  up  this  regular  line 
and  have  inserted  stones  of  irregular  outline  — 
another  move  for  freedom.  In  the  backwoods 
the  frontiersman  gets  rid  of  the  round  form  of  the 
log  which  is  built  into  his  humble  cabin,  he  hews 
it  to  a  right  line  and  thus  takes  off  its  savage 
look.  He,  too,  in  the  heart  of  the  primeval  forest, 
makes  a  start  out  of  rude  nature  toward  civiliza- 
tion. 

6.  Objection  has  been  made  in  some  quarters 
against  the  Cylinder  of  the  Second  Gift  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  not  beautiful,  that  it  ought  to 
be  at  least  twice  as  long  in  order  to  show  the 
form  and  proportion  that  are  pleasing  to  the 
cultivated  eye. 


84  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

The  objection  cannot  hold  for  a  number  of 
reasons.  First  of  all,  the  Second  Gift  is  genetic 
and  the  Cylinder  is  derived  from  and  measured 
by  the  diametral  Line  of  the  Sphere.  To 
lengthen  the  Cylinder  would  be  to  break  this 
genetic  thread,  which  is  to  connect  finally  all 
nature,  and  which  is  the  truly  educative  principle 
of  the  Gifts.  To  sacrifice  this  educative  princi- 
ple to  supposed  aesthetic  considerations  cannot  be 
thought  of  for  a  moment.  It  would  be  the 
surrender  of  the  soul  to  the  body. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  the  deeper  view  of 
what  is  beautiful  would  not  disturb  the  Cylinder 
in  its  present  place.  We  should  feel  the  inner 
harmony  between  it  and  the  Ball,  the  harmony 
of  genesis  itself;  we  should  hear  in  spirit  its 
truly  musical  movement  out  of  and  into  other 
forms  of  this  Gift,  a  kind  of  symphony  of  trans- 
formation. If  we  increase  the  length  of  the 
Cylinder,  we  introduce  a  horrible  discord  into  this 
song  of  the  Sphere,  Cube,  and  Cylinder  attuned 
to  the  primordial  key-note  of  all  creation.  For 
the  sake  of  mere  outer  beauty  at  the  very  best, 
we  destroy  that  inner  beauty  which  springs 
from  the  deeper  correspondences  between  nature 
and  the  soul  of  man.  We  hold,  therefore,  that 
a  true  conception  of  the  beautiful  will  justify  the 
Cylinder  in  its  present  shape  and  relation. 

The  Gifts  of  Froebel,  however,  will  not  neglect 
the  form's  of  beauty  even  in  their  external  mani- 


FBOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      85 

festion.  They  will  have  their  place  in  the  order, 
which  belongs  not  here,  but  to  that  part  of  the 
subject  which  we  have  called  the  Morphology  of 
the  Gifts. 

It  may  be  added  in  this  connection  that  some 
buildings,  essentially  cylindrical  in  shape,  with  a 
height  not  greater  or  even  less  than  the  diameter, 
are  counted  among  the  most  ffunous  structures  of 
the  world.  The  Roman  Colosseum,  somewhat 
oval,  has  an  altitude  less  than  one-third  of  either 
diameter.  Yet  it  would  hardly  be  considered 
inartistic  for  this  reason.  The  small  round  Tem- 
ple of  Vesta  at  Tivoli  is  distinguished  for  its 
beauty;  nobody  probably  ever  thought  that  it 
was  out  of  proportion,  yet  its  height  differs  little 
from  its  diameter.  The  Pantheon  at  Rome  is  a 
low  cylinder  surmounted  by  a  dome.  Surely  in 
architecture  a  cylindrical  shape  of  a  height  equal 
to  its  diameter  cannot  be  put  under  the  ban  of 
ugliness. 

7 .  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  various  nations 
have  applied  these  geometric  forms  —  Cylinder, 
Cone,  Pyramid  —  in  their  simplicity  to  the  erec- 
tion of  tombs, the  houses  of  the  dead, in  which  lies 
more  or  less  darkly  a  symbol  or  intimation  of  the 
Beyond,  or  of  the  Eternal. 

The  cylindrical  tomb  finds  its  most  famous 
examples  at  Rome,  some  of  which  were  built  in  her 
most  civilized  epoch.  Outside  the  walls  can  still 
be  seen  the  large  drum-like  monument  of  Cecilia 


86  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Metella,  eighty  feet  through.  Inside  the  walls 
not  far  from  the  Vatican  stands  the  lofty  mauso- 
leum of  Hadrian,  now  known  as  the  Castle  of  St. 
Angelo,  with  a  massive  Cylinder  over  two  hun- 
dred feet  in  diameter,  above  which  rose  a  roof 
somewhat  like  a  tent  or  cone.  The  substructure 
was  square,  so  that  it  had  its  resemblence  to 
Froebel's  Cube,  Gjrliuder,  and  Ball. 

Conical  tombs  are  ruder  and  belong  to  an 
earlier  epoch,  often  being  hardly  more  than  simple 
tumuli  of  earth.  Still  they  are  frequently  built  of 
stone,  wholly  and  in  part,  like  the  so-called  treas- 
uries (now  considered  to  be  tombs)  in  Greece, 
of  which  the  best  known  are  those  at  Mycenas 
and  Orchonienus.  Conical  tombs  are  found  in 
great  numbers  throughout  Asia  Minor,  and  with 
them  legend  has  often  coupled  the  name  of  some 
Trojan  hero,  or  of  some  personage  famed  in 
story;  for  instance  the  tomb  of  Tantalus,  cone- 
shaped,  is  still  pointed  out  on  the  Lydian  coast  not 
far  from  Smyrna.  Likewise  Etruscan  tombs  are 
often  conical. 

But  the  greatest  tomb  which  man  has  built  is 
the  pyramidal,  and  is  seen  in  the  Egyptian  Pyra- 
mids. Why  should  the  living  construct  such  a 
colossal  abode  for  their  lifeless  shapes?  The 
flat-footed  Cube,  base  of  the  Pyramid,  stands  firm 
on  the  earth,  yet  mightily  projects  itself  upward 
to  a  point,  aspiring  for  the  Unseen,  striving  from 
below  to  the  Beyond  in  a  Titanic  struggle. 


FEOEBEVS  PLAT  GIFTS.-THE  SECOND.     87 

All  these  forms  —  Cylinder,  Cone,  Pyramid — 
the  reader  will  note,  are  those  produced  by  the 
Cube  returning  to  the  Sphere  with  its  invisible 
Point.  They  all  hint,  therefore,  a  going  back  to 
their  source,  to  their  primal  origin ;  they  suggest  a 
movement  from  the  terrestrial  to  the  celestial,  or 
from  the  material  to  the  spiritual.  Also  a  return 
it  is ;  may  we  not  call  such  a  monument  an  inti- 
mation of  the  return  of  the  soul  to  its  Creator? 
Man  cannot  help  constructing  a  symbol  of  him- 
self even  in  his  tomb,  which  says  by  its  very 
shape:  The  departed  have  indeed  left  us,  but 
have  returned  whence  they  came. 

Froebel's  monument  at  Schweina  is  made  of 
the  Cube  below,  the  Cylinder  between,  and  the 
Sphere  at  the  top ;  in  it  we  may  read  a  hint  of 
his  return  upwards,  after  the  separation  of  his 
visible  portion  from  the  invisible. 

8 .  It  may  have  been  noticed  by  the  student  that 
the  above  development  of  the  Second  Gift  takes 
for  granted  that  there  are  three  dimensions  of 
the  solid  and  only  three.  It  is  a  very  pertinent 
question:  Why  just  three,  no  more  and  no  less? 
The  answer  belongs  to  Philosophy,  or,  as  we 
think,  to  Psychology,  but  cannot  be  fully  given 
here.  Still  the  earnest  inquirer  will  reflect  that 
the  solid,  both  as  Space  and  Matter,  shows  this 
agreement  with  the  triple  division  of  the  Psychosis. 
It  would  seem  that  the  material  world  is  condi- 
tioned by  triplicity  as  strongly  as  the  Ego  itself, 


88  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

or  even  more  strongly,  being  tied  up  in  the 
adamantine  chain  of  three  dimensions  and  no 
fourth. 

Space  and  Matter  are  the  creation  of  an  Ego 
and  show  its  movement,  even  if  completely  exter- 
nalized, so  that  each  dimension,  though  absolutely 
united  with  and  determined  by  the  other  two,  are 
yet  wholly  outside  of  the  other  two.  The  measur- 
ing principle  (dimension)  of  the  solid  universe  is 
threefold,  bearing  the  outer  impress  of  the  Ego 
which  made  it,  the  Divine.  Therefore,  the  Ego, 
the  human,  can  account  for  it,  can  know  it,  using 
itself  as  measurer  with  its  own  threefold  process, 
which  shows  itself  in  the  outer  material  world  as 
the  three  dimensions. 

9.  The  method  employed  in  the  preceding  ex- 
position of  the  Second  Gift  is  not  the  «*  connec- 
tion of  the  opposites,"  not  "  the  mediation  of 
contrasts."  On  the  contrary,  the  process  of  the 
Ego  is  introduced  to  explain  the  unfolding  of  the 
child's  mind  through  this  Gift.  The  movement 
of  the  Ball,  Cube,  Cylinder,  must  be  seen  as  an 
outer  manifestation  of  the  child's  own  soul  (or 
Ego)  in  its  development.  Thus  the  Second  Gift 
is  profoundly  educative,  having  in  it  the  educative 
process  in  outward  reality,  by  means  of  which 
the  infantile  mind  is  made  to  put  forth  a  fresh 
flower,  or  is  led  out  (educated)  into  a  new  stage 
of  itself. 

This  process,  therefore,  does  not  start  with  the 


FBOEBEUS  PL  Af  GIFTS.—  THE  SECOND.      89 


conception  of  -the  Ball  and  Cube  as  two  opposites, 
which  are  simply  united  in  the  Cylinder.  On  the 
contrary  it  starts  with  the  Ball,  out  of  which  is 
evolved  the  Cube,  which  unfolds  into  the  other 
forms  (Pyramid,  Cone,  and  Cylinder).  This  is 
not  the  '  '  law  of  opposites  ;  "  in  strictness  it  is 
not  a  law  at  all,  which  seems  some  iron  necessity 
imposed  upon  the  mind  from  the  outside  by  an 
unknown  power.  It  is  the  free  movement  of  the 
Ego  itself  in  its  own  self  -active  nature,  which 
herein  is  its  own  law  and  its  own  law-maker. 

We  hold  that  Froebel's  practice  conforms  to 
the  process  above  given,  though  his  explanation 
usually  does  not.  Still  he  sometimes  drops  the 
law  of  opposites  and  seizes  the  pure  psychical 
movement.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  student 
will  have  to  confess  that  his  practical  work  is  far 
greater  and  deeper  than  his  explanation  of  it. 

10.  In  the  preceding  exposition  it  has  been 
declared  that  the  central  Point  of  the  Sphere 
becomes  explicit  in  the  corner  of  the  Cube.  This 
is  true,  still  we  say  here  in  advance  that  the 
implicit  central  Point  just  mentioned  will  become 
completely  explicit  when  it  is  free  of  the  Cube 
and  is  taken  by  itself,  as  it  is  in  Abstract  Mag- 
nitude. The  last  of  the  Gifts  (quantitative)  is 
the  Point,  separate  from  all  matter  and  extension, 
fully  explicit  and  free. 

Thus  we  observe  that  the  sweep  of  the  Gifts 
lies  between  the  two  Points,  the  beginning  and 


90  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  end,  the  completely  implicit  and  the  com- 
pletely explicit  Points,  the  latter  being  repre- 
sented by  the  seed  or  pebble.  These  two  Points, 
the  beginning  and  end  of  the  Gifts,  are  connected 
by  an  inner  genesis,  which  will  be  better  under- 
stood at  its  conclusion,  when  this  thought  is  to 
be  specially  emphasized. 

11.  The  Second  Gift,  with  Cube  below,  Cylin- 
der in  the  middle,  and  Ball  on  top,  has  a 
surprising  resemblance  to  the  human  form,  a 
rough-hewn  outline  of  man  himself,  not  yet  un- 
folded into  his  full  noble  shape,  but  distinctly 
going  thitherward.  Not  yet  evolved,  but  evolving ; 
a  somewhat  awkward,  unfree  figure  of  humanity 
developing  into  the  image  of  its  very  self ;  it  is 
a  rude  statue  of  the  incipient  Ego  taking  011  its 
visible  counterpart,  the  body.  It  is  a  kind  of 
hieroglyphic  of  the  child-soul  who  has  to  read  it, 
and  thereby  corne  to  a  knowledge  of  himself. 

Make  him  stand  erect,  that  primeval  Man, 
with  base  firmly  planted  on  the  earth,  with 
cylindrical  body  upright,  and  capped  with  the 
sphere,  that  round  head  of  his,  which  is  the  seat 
of  his  thought,  of  his  creative  power,  generating 
anew  all  things.  Certainly  a  rude  figure  of  a 
human  being,  yet  statuesque,  recalling  the  child 
statuary  making  himself  out  of  mud  and  thus 
looking  at  himself,  or  the  primitive  sculptor  of 
savage  life  with  his  sun-baked  divinities  of  clay ; 
in  fact,  I  might  be  able  to  point  out  the  granite 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.—  THE  SECOND.      91 

cousin  of  this  Froebelian  shape  among  the  Egyp- 
tian Gods.  Hardly,  however,  is  he  to  be  found 
in  the  Greek  Pantheon,  or  even  in  the  Greek 
Pandemonium. 

Still  this  Second  Gift  bears  in  itself  the  cre- 
ative Idea  embodied,  and  is  a  world-maker ;  a  sort 
of  demiurge  we  have  already  called  it,  and  the 
rude  statue  of  it  already  alluded  to  represents  a 
divinely  creative  principle  which  is  yet  to  unfold 
into  fullness,  and  to  realize  itself  in  a  veritable 
cosmos  of  forms.  It  is  truly  the  Man-Gift,  not 
only  showing  Man  in  rude  sculpturesque  outline 
embodied  to  vision,  but  also  revealing.  Man  as 
the  spiritually  generative  energy  of  and  within 
himself,  and  likewise  as  the  genetic  source  of  the 
transformation  of  the  whole  material  universe. 

Look  again  at  its  triune  shape ;  it  is  an  em- 
bodied Ego,  a  materialized  Psychosis,  of  a  rather 
primitive  cast,  doubtless,  yet  deeply  genuine, 
for  the  child  and  of  the  child.  Undeveloped,  one 
cannot  help  reiterating,  not  yet  having  sloughed 
off  its  prehistoric  cuticle  altogether,  though 
mightily  engaged  in  the  process  thereof ;  Man  it 
is  assuredly,  with  head  and  trunk  plainly  visible, 
but  he  cannot  walk,  his  feet  are  not  yet  evolved, 
nor  are  his  hands.  Man,  yes,  but  Man  in  his 
tadpole  stage  —  just  look  at  that  statue  again  — 
not  yet  able  to  march  on  two  legs,  though  lustily 
wriggling  toward  the  step  of  freedom. 

So  we  may  seek  to  make  a  living  fact  out  of 


92  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

this  profoundly  suggestive  Gift.  Its  originative 
character  we  can  imagine  in  many  ways,  and 
cast  into  many  sorts  of  illustrations,  still  its 
creative  soul  is  a  thought,  not  an  image,  and  in 
order  to  be  adequately  understood,  must  be 
thought  anew,  that  is  created  anew  in  and  by 
the  spirit  of  the  student. 

Historical.  Froebel's  conception  of  the  Sec- 
ond Gift  was  a  growth  and  a  long  one.  But  in 
his  last  written  production  of  any  length,  the  let- 
ter to  Emma  Bothman  (reprinted  by  Lange,  II. 
501),  he  shows  that  he  has  in  mind  this  Gift  in 
its  present  form  —  Ball,  Cube,  and  Cylinder. 
The  mentioned  letter  is  dated  May  25th,  1852 ; 
Froebel  died  June  21st,  1852,  less  than  one  month 
afterwards  (according  to  most  authorities,  but 
some  say  the  date  of  Froebel's  death  was  July 
21st,  1852). 

If  we  go  back  a  dozen  years  or  more  to  Froe- 
bel's long  essay  on  "The  Sphere  and  Cube  as 
second  play-gift  of  the  child,"  we  find  no  Cylin- 
der, but  the  doll.  This  essay  or  series  of  essays, 
since  there  are  several  parts  (Lange,  II.  53 ; 
translation  by  Miss  Jarvis,  I.  70),  was  taken 
from  the  Sonntagsblatt,  which  was  published 
by  Froebel  in  the  years  1838  and  1840  (see 
Seidel's  edition  of  Froebel's  Works,  Vol.  II, 
Vorwort).  Thus  the  intermediate  form  was  de- 
veloped later;  somewhere  about  1844  the  Cylin- 
der as  the  third  or  mediating  body  had  taken  its 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      93 

place  in  the  Second  Gift  (Hanschmann,  Leben 
von  Froebel,  S.  327). 

But  also  the  Cone  appears  prominently  in  one 
of  his  longer  expositions  (see  Lange,  II.  559.  — 
trans,  by  Miss  Jarvis,  II.,  p.  306.  On  the  Cone 
see  p.  315  in  the  latter).  Here  he  says  directly 
that  the  Second  Gift  consists  of  four  bodies,  and 
gives  his  reasons  why  there  should  be  so  many. 
Still  in  the  letter  just  cited  he  does  not  mention 
the  Cone,  but  the  Cylinder  is  the  sole  interme- 
diate form.  So  he  must  have  rejected  the  Cone 
jn  the  intervening  years,  and  have  retained 
simply  the  Cylinder. 

We  may  now  seek  to  find  the  epoch  when 
Froebel  occupied  himself  specially  with  the 
Sphere,  which  is  the  beginning  and  source  of  his 
Gifts.  In  the  year  1821  he  wrote  out  and  pub- 
lished his  "  Aphorisms  "  among  which  are  found 
the  •  following  reflections  on  the  Sphere.  We 
translate  from  Lange  (I.  263)  :  — 

"  The  spherical  is  the  representation  of  multi- 
plicity (diversity)  in  unity,  and  of  unity  in 
multiplicity." 

"  The  spherical  is  the  representation  of  multi- 
plicity developing  itself  out  of  unity  and  the 
referring  of  all  multiplicity  back  to  unity." 

* '  The  spherical  is  the  universal  and  the  par- 
ticular, the  general  and  the  special,  unity  and 
individuality  at  the  same  time." 


94  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

"  Unity  and  multiplicity  joined  together  in 
their  greatest  perfection  is  the  spherical." 

"  Everything  develops  its  spherical  nature  to 
perfection  only  in  this  threefold  way,  that  it 
strives  to  represent  and  does  actually  represent 
its  essence  in  itself  and  through  itself  in  its 
unity,  individuality,  and  multiplicity." 

"  Everything  shows  this  threefold  representa- 
tion of  its  nature,  is  through  the  same  closed 
(completed,  geschlossen} ,  and  is  in  and  through 
the  same  alone  perfectly  intellegible  and  recog- 
nizable." (Very  important  this,  as  hinting  the 
fundamental  process  of  knowing. ) 

"  Everything  obtains  through  the  same  (this 
threefold  representation)  its  true  end,  and  its 
true  appreciation  as  a  member  of  a  whole." 
(  GUed  eines  Ganzen,  an  intimation  of  Froebel's 
later  Gliedganzes^  or  member-whole.) 

"It  is  supremely  the  vocation  of  man  to  un- 
fold, to  cultivate  and  to  realize  his  spherical 
nature,  then  the  nature  of  the  spherical  in 
general." 

' '  To  work  consciously  for  the  development  of 
the  spherical  nature  of  a  being  means  to  educate 
that  being."  (Here  the  educative  application  of 
his  thought  comes  out.) 

*«  The  law  of  the  Sphere  is  the  fundamental  law 
of  all  true,  adequate  culture  of  mankind." 

Such  was  Froebel's  grand  grapple  with  the 
Sphere,  seeking  to  seize  it  as  it  is  in  itself  and  as 


FROEBEVS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      95 

a  means  of  education.  Many  years  later  he  will 
take  up  the  Sphere  again  and  incorporate  it  into 
his  kindergarden  for  the  training  of  the  little 
child. 

The  above  aphorisms  show  a  struggle,  dark, 
difficult  to  understand  fully  unless  you  know 
pretty  well  beforehand  what  the  author  means. 
But  he  sees  that  the  spherical  principle  and  its 
movement  run  through  all  things  and  constitute 
their  essence.  And  he  also  sees  that  this  move- 
ment is  inherently  threefold,  and  just  through 
such  threefold  process  is  it  cognizable  by  the 
Ego,  which  also  has  the  same  triple  process  (he 
does  not  say  this  last  and  probably  does  not  see 
it,  yet  it  is. implicit  in  his  statements).  Likewise 
he  shows  an  insight  into  the  educative  bearing  of 
the  process  of  the  Sphere  (he  calls  it  the  spherical 
law},  which  insight  he  had  probably  obtained 
chiefly  at  Keilhau  in  his  practical  work  of 
teaching. 

One  other  point  should  be  noticed :  the  nomen- 
clature of  the  above  passages.  It  is  manifestly 
derived  from  the  nature-philosophy  of  Schelling, 
which  Froebel  picked  up  at  Jena  in  his  youth. 
Moreover,  the  manner  is  not  empirical,  but 
deductive,  or  rather  intuitive. 

We  also  know  that  Froebel  began  to  reflect 
profoundly  upon  the  spherical  in  nature  and  in 
man  at  Gottingen  when  a  student  there  in  1811, 
ten  years  before  the  publication  of  the  above 


96  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Aphorisms.  He  was  led  into  this  line  of  thought 
by  the  appearance  of  a  comet  in  the  Heavens,  a 
sight  which  stirred  him  to  the  deepest  thinking. 
Says  he,  in  his  autobiographical  letter  to  the 
Duke  of  Meiningen  (Lange,  I.  103)  : — 

"  Walking  in  the  beautiful  suburbs  of  Got- 
tingen  till  nearly  midnight,  I  was  suddenly 
surprised  by  a  new  phenomenon  appearing  in  the 
starry  skies  above  me.  I  knew  very  little  about 
Astronomy,  and  so  the  existence  of  a  great  comet 
had  remained  unknown  to  me ;  I  discovered  it, 
so  to  speak,  by  myself,  and  hence  it  produced 
within  me  a  peculiar  charm.  It  remained  in  the 
still  nights  an  object  of  my  contemplation,  and 
the  thought  of  the  universal  spherical  law  devel- 
oped itself  and  formed  itself  at  that  time 
particularly,  and  during  those  nocturnal  walks, 
from  which  I  often  returned  in  order  to  fix  the 
results  of  my  thinking,  and  after  a  short  sleep 
to  pursue  the  further  development  of  my  mind." 

At  Gottingen,  then,  when  Froebel  was  twenty- 
nine  years  old,  the  Sphere,  as  the  mediating 
principle  between  spirit  and  nature,  had  entered 
deeply  into  his  thought-life.  From  the  Sphere 
he  had  not  yet  made  the  transition  to  the  Cube ; 
this  no  doubt  came  to  him  more  or  less  distinctly 
through  the  study  of  crystallography  with  Pro- 
fessor Weiss,  of  Berlin,  to  which  city  he  went  on 
leaving  Gottingen.  Still,  he  has  not  one  word 
about  the  Cube  in  his  Aphorisms ;  that  fruit  he 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.   07 

plucked  not  till  the  Kindergarden  had  ripened  in 
his  soul. 

We  have  already  noticed  that  the  language  and 
manner  of  thinking  shown  in  these  Aphorisms 
recall  the  philosophical  construction  of  nature, 
which  is  connected  chiefly  with  the  name  of 
Schelling,  but  which  was  a  mighty  spiritual  in- 
fluence working  in  the  time.  In  this  impulse 
Froebel  shared  to  the  end  of  life,  and,  more  than 
any  other  man,  carried  it  over  into  education. 
Undoubtedly  he  received  its  first  dawnings  as  a 
student  at  Jena,  where  he  was  from  1799  to 
1801.  During  this  time  Schelling  was  lecturing 
at  the  University  of  Jena,  and  was  the  strongest 
influence  there,  probably,  being  in  the  meridian  of 
his  philosophic  career.  Froebel  does  not  seem 
to  have  attended  Schelling' s  lectures,  but  the 
eager  receptive  youth  must  have  heard  much 
about  his  doctrines  from  brother  Traugott  and 
other  fellow-students.  Young  Friedrich  imbibed, 
doubtless  obscurely  and  fragmentarily,  the  phi- 
losopher's view  of  nature  as  well  as  his  termi- 
nology, both  of  which  can  be  traced  in  his  later 
writings,  notably  in  "  The  Education  of  Man." 
It  may  be  here  remarked  that  the  influence  of 
Jena  upon  Froebel  has  never  been  adequately 
appreciated  by  any  of  his  biographers. 

So  we  have  reached  back  to  the  beginning  of 
the  development  of  the  Froebelian  Gifts  in  the 
soul  of  Froebel  himself.  For  they  were  a  con- 

7 


98  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

tinned  evolution  going  through  his  whole  mature 
life,  from  youth  upwards;  it  may  be  said  that 
Froebel's  spirit  unfolded  with  his  Gifts  and  into 
his  Gifts,  which  are  at  least  one  very  significant 
expression  of  the  man  in  his  striving  for  self- 
realization.  The  Second  Gift,  including,  as  it 
does,  the  First  Gift  in  the  Ball,  is  truly  the 
orginative  or  genetic  Gift  of  the  whole  series,  and 
Froebel's  creative  spirit  poured  itself  out  into 
the  same  at  important  stages  of  his  life,  which  is 
connected  together  on  an  interior  line  by  this 
Gift.  These  stages  we  shall  briefly  recapitulate 
in  an  ascending  order,  as  they  were  before  given 
in  a  descending  order. 

I.  Jena,   1799-1801.      Schelling's    influence. 
The  dark  brooding  idea  of  the  unity  in  man  and 
the  world  begins  to  ferment,  uttering  itself  in  a 
vague  philosophic  nomenclature.     Froebel    was 
nineteen  years  old  when  he  left  Jena  after  a  stay 
of  nearly  two  years  altogether. 

II.  Gottingen,    1811.     He     finds    an     object 
which  gives  reality  to  his  idea,  namely  the  Sphere, 
in  which  he  sees  the  oneness  of  spirit  and  nature. 
Thus  his  inner  thought  has  found  an  outer  form 
for  its  bearer.     Twenty-nine  years  old. 

III.  Keilhau,  1821.     He   now   shows»  his  in- 
sight into  the  pedagogical  purpose  of  the  Sphere, 
which  is  to   become  a  grand   means  of  human 
education.     See  the  last  aphorisms  above  cited. 
Thirty-nine  years  old. 


FROEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.      99 

IV.  Education  of  Man,  1826.     In  this  work 
the  Cube  is  added  to  the  Sphere,  and  both  are 
the  results  of  force  indwelling  in  nature,  which 
is  especially  seen  in  the  production  of  crystals, 
all  of  which  is  educative.     Forty-four  years  old. 

V.  The    Kindergarden,    Blankenburg,    1837. 
The   Sphere   and   the   Cube  have  reached  their 
educative    purpose    in    the    Second    Gift,  being 
employed   for  the  unfolding  of  the  child-mind. 
They  are  opposites,  yet  in  unity;  but  the  Cube 
is  not  distinctly  derived  from  the  Sphere.     (See 
his  essay  on  the  Second  Gift. )     Fifty-five  years 
old. 

VI.  About   the   year    1844    (Hanschmann   in 
Froebel's  Leben,  s.  327)  the  intermediate  forms 
are  added,  namely  the  Cylinder  and  apparently 
the  Cone  with  it.     Sixty-two  years  old. 

VII.  His  last  statement  (1852)  drops  the  Cone 
and  mentions  the  Ball,  Cube,  and  Cylinder  as  the 
three   forms    of    the   Second    Gift,    which    has 
remained   as   he   left   it   down  to    the    present. 
Seventy  years  old. 

Such  is  the  development  of  Froebel  himself  into 
his  Second  Gift,  a  development  running  through 
more  than  fifty  years  of  his  life  and  receiving 
the  last  touch  with  the  last  thoughts  of  his  last 
days.  It  begins  with  the  vague,  indefinite  idea 
fermenting  chaotically  within  the  soul  of  the 
youth,  and  passes  through  various  stages  of 
clarification,  till  it  attains  its  final  shape  within 


100  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  soul  of  the  old  man.  Undoubtedly  he 
is  struggling  to  obtain  clearness  himself;  but 
with  this  effort  is  coupled  another  end,  at  first 
unconscious,  yet  becoming  conscious  with  time; 
it  is  to  find  an  educative  means  by  which  the 
little  child  can  be  assisted  to  unfold  into  his  spir- 
itual heritage,  bringing  him  into  harmony  with 
his  true  self,  with  nature  and  with  the  Divine. 
In  a  deep  and  worthy  sense  Froebel  himself  was 
always  a  child,  he  unfolded  as  a  child,  yet  with 
the  creative  power  of  a  genius.  Not  till  he 
created  the  instrumentalities  for  developing  the 
child,  did  he  himself  develop  fully  and  attain  the 
final  fruitage  of  his  spirit. 

Looking  over  the  works  of  his  successors  in  the 
exposition  of  this  Second  Gift,  we  are  compelled 
to  say  that  they  all  drop  far  behind  him  in  pro- 
f  unity  and  in  deep  living  intensity  of  purpose ; 
sometimes  we  have  unwillingly  to  think  that  they 
have  not  rightly  understood  him. 


II. 

THE    DERIVED    GIFTS. 

We  now  come  to  the  series  of  the  Gifts 
(quantitative),  which  distinctly  point  to  the 
Second  Gift  as  their  origin.  They  include  all 
the  rest  of  the  Gifts  so-called  till  the  Occupa- 
tions, and  are  usually  counted  as  eight,  nine,  or 
ten  in  number.  The  first  six  Gifts  were  desig- 
nated in  their  numerical  order  by  Froebel  him- 
self, and  his  designation  of  them  has  become 
settled. 

The  chief  term  or  category  which  characterizes 
these  Gifts  is,  accordingly,  Derivation;  they  all 
go  back  to  the  Cube  and  Sphere  in  plain  ances- 
tral lineage.  This  Derivation  tak«s  place  by 
division,  abstraction,  separation  in  some  form ; 
it  belongs  fundamentally  to  the  second  stage  of 

(101) 


102  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  Psychosis.  As  the  shapes  are  extended  in 
space,  are  quantitative,  the  division  is  manifested 
to  the  senses,  is  made  visible,  and  thus  is  adapted 
to  the  child. 

The  line  of  Derivation  running  through  all 
these  Gifts,  is  to  be  carefully  brought  out,  as  it 
is  that  which  connects  them  in  a  transparent 
unity  which  the  child  first  feels  and  then  sees, 
thereby  acquiring  his  best  lesson. 

The  Derived  Gifts,  taken  by  themselves,  pass 
through  a  triple  process,  of  which  the  stages  are 
the  following :  — 

A.  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude,  having  all  the 
dimensions  —  length,  breadth,  thickness  —  show- 
ing sensuous  completeness.     That  is,   they  are 
solids,  and  are  derived  directly  from  the  Cube  by 
visible  separation. 

B.  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude,  in  which  the 
ideal  separation  or  abstraction  takes  place  from 
the   Cube,    producing  the  surface,    line,   point, 
which,  however,  are  visibly  re-embodied  for  the 
child  in  a  solid. 

To  the  first  belong  the  Third,  Fourth,  Fifth, 
and  Sixth  Gifts ;  to  the  second  belong  the  rest  of 
the  Gifts. 

C.  The  Return  to  Concrete  Magnitude  out  of 
Abstract ;  the  point  by  its  very  nature  turns  about 
upon  itself  and  goes  back,  through  line  and  sur- 
face, to  the    solid.     This    third  stage,    though 
absolutely  necessary  to  the  psychical  movement, 


FROE  BEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS— THE  SECOND.    103 

needs  no  new  Gift  for  its  expression,  but  only  a 
conforming  adjustment  of  the  old  ones. 

Such  is  the  general  process  underlying  and 
linking  together  the  Derived  Quantitative  Gifts. 
This  process  must  be  grasped  not  simply  as  the 
unity  of  opposites,  but  as  the  living  movement  of 
the  mind  which  manifests  itself  in  these  external 
shapes.  With  them  the  child's  Ego  feels  its 
own  intimate  relationship,  and  is  thereby  set  to 
work  in  its  own  inner  process  of  unfolding. 

A.  GIFTS  OF  CONCRETE  MAGNITUDE.  These 
Gifts  are  solid  and  embrace  what  are  usually 
called  the  Building  Gifts.  They  belong  to  the 
first  stage  of  the  total  Psychosis  of  the  quanti- 
tative Gifts,  as  in  them  the  Ego  takes  the 
immediate  sensuous  object  in  its  material  full- 
ness. They  are  geometrical  primarily,  but  arith- 
metical secondarily,  and  then  show  the  union  of 
both  in  measure  or  mensuration.  For  this  reason 
they  are  architectural,  since  all  architecture  has 
form  and  number,  and  must  measure  the  solid 
form  by  means  of  number. 

The  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude  will  also 
show  in  themselves  the  complete  process  of  the 
Ego,  which  made  them,  and  in  the  present  case 
made  them  for  the  purpose  of  unfolding  itself. 
The  three  stages  will  be  as  follows :  — 

1.  The  rectilineal  series,  in  which  straight  or 
right  lines  dominate  the  forms.  The  above  men- 


104  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

tioned  Gifts  (Third  to  Sixth  inclusive)  are  wholly 
rectilineal  and  mostly  rectangular.  This  is  a  one- 
sidedness  even  in  a  geometrical  aspect,  which 
loudly  calls  for  a  new  adjustment.  Hence  the 
following :  — 

2.  The  curvilineal  series,  in  which  the  curved 
line  finds  its  recognition.     But  this  series  was  not 
elaborated  by  Froebel,  though  he  seems  to  have 
thought  of  it.     Nor  has  it  been  wrought  out  to 
its  due  fullness  by  any  of  his  successors,  though 
Goldammer  has  made  a  good  beginning. 

3.  The  unification  of  the  rectilineal  and  curvi- 
lineal elements,  by  which  means  some  of  the  most 
important  architectural  forms  of  the  past  can  be 
shown.     For  the  right  line  and  the  curved  line, 
though    different,   at   last   belong  together  and 
must  be  built  together  in  the  complete  edifice. 
The  architecture  of  the  human  race  can  now  be 
illustrated  and  rebuilt  in  its  essential  features  by 
these  little  blocks  for  the  use  of  children. 

The  distinction  between  the  rectilineal  and  the 
curvilineal  goes  back  to  the  two  kinds  of  lines, 
the  diametral  and  the  peripheral,  implicit  in  the 
Sphere.  But  these  two  kinds  of  lines  will  become 
completely  separate  and  explicit  in  the  Gifts  of 
Abstract  Magnitude  (in  the  Sticks  and  Rings). 
At  present  the  line  is  still  held  fast  in  the  solid, 
though  visible ;  it  is  not  yet  free. 

It  may  be  said  here,  that,  without  the  curvi- 
lineal element  the  derivation  from  the  Second 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SECOND.   105 

Gift  is  incomplete,  since  there  are  no  round  solid 
forms  corresponding  to  the  Sphere  and  Cylinder. 
Yet  rotundity  comes  first  in  the  genetic  process, 
so  that  the  curvilineal  may  be  regarded  as  deeper 
than  the  rectilineal,  since  it  reaches  further  back, 
indeed  it  returns  to  the  very  origin  of  the  Gifts 
in  their  generating  shape,  the  Ball. 

To  leave  out  the  curvilineal  element,  there- 
fore, deeply  violates  a  well-known  Froebelian 
principle,  namely,  to  employ  all  the  material 
which  we  once  introduce,  and  not  to  have  any 
piece  left  after  our  construction,  as  litter  on  the 
table  or  in  the  mind.  Particularly  the  Cylin- 
der—  what  is  the  use  of  it,  unless  it  too  be 
genetic,  the  source  of  forms? 

At  present,  however,  we  shall  drop  this  subject 
and  pass  to  the  rectilineal  Gifts,  which  lie  before 
us  for  exposition.  This,  in  order  to  be  educa- 
tive, must  bring  into  prominence  the  psychical 
movement  which  lies  implicit  in  the  child's  mind, 
but  which  is  brought  out  and  made  explicit  by 
these  Gifts,  whose  innermost  process  is  in  deep 
correspondence  with  the  budding  Ego. 

1.  The  rectilineal  series.  This  is  what  we  are 
now  to  set  forth  in  some  detail.  These  Gifts  are 
four  in  number  (Third  to  Sixth  inclusive),  are 
all  solids  of  various  sizes  and  shapes,  and  are 
all  derived  directly  from  the  Cube  by  division. 

We    have    already   noticed   the   fondness     of 


106  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Froebel  for  right  lines.  His  was  a  crystallo- 
graphic  spirit  both  by  nature  and  by  training. 
Moreover,  this  training  extended  to  architecture, 
especially  the  Greek,  which  is  almost  wholly 
rectilineal  and  rectangular.  And  in  the  moral 
nature  of  Froebel  we  think  we  can  trace  an 
analogy  to  the  rectilineal.  He  was  a  man  of 
rectitude,  a  straight-lined  character  even  to 
obstinacy  at  times. 

The  rectilineal  series  embraces  what  are  usually 
called  the  Building  Gifts  of  the  Kindergarden. 
As  before  indicated,  man  begins  to  use  the  right- 
lined  forms  in  his  early  construction;  he  first 
gets  rid  of  the  round  shapes  of  nature.  Still  he 
returns  to  the  round  shape,  makes  it  over,  and 
adjusts  it  anew  to  his  rectilineal  forms.  This 
movement  we  shall  see  justify  itself  in  the  hist  ^ry 
of  architecture.  Hence  the  curvilineal  element 
must  be  added  to  complete  the  process  within  and 
without. 

Having  laid  out  in  advance  these  divisions,  and 
subdivisions,  whose  justification  is  to  be  ade- 
quately [seen  at  the  end,  we  shall  proceed  to  give 
some  special  remarks  on  the  Building  Gifts  in 
succession. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  THIRD.      107 


THE    THIRD    GIFT. 

From  the  preceding  Gift  the  Cube  is  taken 
and  repeated  in  the  present  Gift ;  thus  the  con- 
nection is  manifest.  Still,  difference  enters  also  ; 
this  Cube  is  divided  into  eight  small  Cubes,  the 
former  having  the  size  of  two  inches,  the  latter 
one  inch.  The  two-inch  Cube  is  thus  halved 
each  way,  that  is,  according  to  its  three  dimen- 
sions, length,  breadth,  and  height. 

Here  we  observe  the  fact  of  separation  visibly 
presented  to  the  child,  and  this  separation  pro- 
ductive of  objects  of  a  similar  kind,  though 
smaller  than  their  parent;  they  may  be  called 
the  lesser  members,  the  children  of  the  Cube 
family. 

Thus  the  Derived  Gifts,  of  which  this  is  the 
first,  begin  with  the  seen  act  of  separation.  Such 
we  must  regard  as  the  characteristic  fact  of  it, 
for  all  Derivation  is  a  birth,  is  in  some  manner  a 
separation,  a  dividing  of  the  thing  from  its  source. 
The  Cube  in  the  preceding  Gift  was  also  derived 
by  separation  from  the  Sphere,  but  this  separa- 
tion was  internal,  ideal,  whereas  the  present 
separation  is  external,  visible,  manifest  to  the 
senses  of  the  child.  Or  we  may  say  that  the  first 


108  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

or  ideal  separation  of  the  preceding  Gift  is  .made 
real  in  the  present  Gift. 

At  the  same  time  the  child,  after  separating, 
can  put  together  again,  and  thereby  show  the 
return  to  unity,  which,  though  external,  sug- 
gests always  the  inner  process  of  the  Ego.  Then 
he  can  begin  to  combine  several  of  these  cubical 
forms  and  so  bring  to  light  new  forms ;  in  this 
way  he  starts  to  using  the  principle  which  runs 
through  all  the  quantitative  Gifts,  that  of  exter- 
nal combination  to  produce  forms. 

In  this  Third  Gift  the  child  will  be  acquiring 
slowly  the  conception  of  size  (quantitative  or 
space-occupying)  as  distinguished  from  form 
(qualitative)  ,  since  the  forms  are  the  same,  while 
the  sizes  are  of  two  kinds.  Moreover  counting 
with  incipient  arithmetical  operations  will  start  into 
activity,  as  the  child  sees  the  one  become  two  by 
separation,  then  each  of  these  two  is  separated 
again,  and  finally  each  of  the  fours  is  separated. 
Thus  he  sees  a  unit  reached  at  which  separation 
stops,  and  the  movement  begins  the  other  way. 
This  final  unit  is  worthy  of  a  name :  it  is  the  unit 
of  measurement,  and  the  returning  process  is 
properly  that  of  measure,  and  this  unit  (the 
small  Cube)  measures  the  total  object  (the  large 
Cube). 

Such  is  the  most  important  fact  of  the  present 
Gift.  The  cubic  inch,  which  is  now  visible,  is 
the  unit  of  all  measurement  of  solids.  By  means 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  THIRD.      109 

of  it  and  its  multiples  (cubic  feet,  cubic  yards, 
etc.)  the  solid  contents  of  the  whole  earth  are 
measured  and  expressed.  Nay,  the  child  beholds 
the  actual  unit,  which  is  the  cubic  inch,  and  the 
process  of  measuring,  though  he  may  not  be  able 
to  count  the  number  of  cubic  inches  in  the  large 
Cube.  Still  the  principle  he  sees  and  he  will  not 
lose  it.  The  skillful  kindergardner  will  be  able 
to  play  this  process  of  measurement  in  a  number 
of  engaging  ways,  so  that  the  child  will  get  pos- 
session of  a  veritable  modulus  or  measuring 
principle  of  the  material  universe,  or  indeed  of 
all  space.  Just  that  little  wooden  cubic  inch  has 
such  a  magic  power ! 

From  the  cubic  inch  is  derived  directly  the 
square  inch,  which  is  the  unit  of  measurement 
for  all  surfaces,  with  its  multiples  (square  feet, 
square  yards,  square  miles,  etc.).  So  we  meas- 
ure the  earth's  surface,  and  draw  boundaries  in 
geography,  and  compare  the  size  of  countries. 
In  this  way  the  little  child  is  getting  into  his 
head  the  primary  measuring  principle  for  the 
whole  world.  By  a  like  derivation  we  can  get 
the  line  which  is  now  the  linear  inch  made  visible 
in  the  small  Cube,  by  means  of  which  the  child 
slowly  acquires  a  judgment  of  length  and  dis- 
tance. Of  course  the  kindergarden  Gift  is 
adjusted  to  the  legal  standard  of  measurement. 

Moreover,  this  inch  is  what  the  race,  or  the 
Anglo-Saxon  portion  of  it,  has  adopted  as  its 


110  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

principle  of  measurement,  and  the  child  is  follow- 
ing therein  the  footsteps  of  his  kin  and  kind. 
Undoubtedly  the  inch  must  be  derived,  deter- 
mined, obtained  by  some  process  —  but  this  need 
not  trouble  us  here.  For  us  and  for  the  child 
the  inch  is  something  given  —  a  Gift  —  of  which 
we  have  to  take  possession  and  learn  to  use. 

Now  we  see  the  fundamental  necessity  of  the 
small  Cube  and  the  large  Cube  in  the  present 
Gift  —  only  thereby  can  the  child  get  the  con- 
ception of  measure,  and  start  to  comparing  the 
material  world  quantitatively.  -  And  this  quanti- 
tative measurement  of  sensuous  objects  rises  into 
a  great  spiritual  fact  in  judgment  and  reasoning. 

Language  has  an  important  place  in  this  Gift, 
as  every  kindergardner  knows.  The  position 
must  be  accurately  designated,  and  the  move- 
ments determined  by  the  word  of  command  —  all 
of  which  requires  a  careful  use  of  speech. 

The  Third  Gift,  being  the  first  one  of  the 
Building  Gifts  is  a  kind  of  overture  to  what 
follows ;  out  of  it  flows  the  silent  music  of  con- 
struction. The  child  will  see  the  Cube  or  cuboidal 
forms  in  the  edifices  around  him ;  especially  he 
will  notice  the  large  hewn  stone  in  foundations 
and  walls,  if  he  lives  in  city  or  town.  The  house 
itself,  apart  from  its  sloping  roof,  has  usually 
some  shape  approaching  the  Cube.  Man's  archi- 
tectonic soul  might  almost  be  said  to  be  cubical, 
especially  at  its  opening,  for  the  Cube  seems  to 


FROEBLL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.—  THE  THIRD.      Ill 

be  that  form  which  it  builds  about  itself  as  its 
outer  garment.  The  hut,  the  room  inside,  the 
door  and  window,  even  the  materials  of  stone  and 
brick  suggest  the  Cube  as  their  typical,  origina- 
tive shape.  The  builder  must  first  set  his  house 
firmly  on  the  ground,  like  the  face  of  a  Cube  on 
the  child's  table;  then  he  constructs  the  other 
sides  around  himself  and  overhead,  whereby  he 
has  a  home  for  his  inner  life  and  that  of  his 
family.  He  goes  inside  of  a  Cube  in  order  to 
live  and  to  have  protection ;  for  this  shape  does 
not  rock  on  its  foundation,  and  it  has  all  its 
corners,  lines,  and  surfaces  explicit  against  the 
outer  world,  standing  ever  prepared  for  an  assault 
from  Nature's  rude  elemental  forces,  a  fortress 
outside,  a  home  for  the  nestlings  inside. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  present  Gift  has 
been  often  emphasized;  it  satisfies,  by  its  division 
through  the  center  and  the  visible  results  thereof, 
the  child's  strong  bent  for  seeing  the  inside  of 
things.  Has  not  his  own  home  this  inside,  has  not 
he  too?  So  he  often  breaks  his  toy  as  soon  as 
he  takes  it  into  his  hand.  He  has  the  presenti- 
ment that  the  outside  is  not  the  true  reality,  that 
it  is  somehow  determined  from  the  inside  as  he 
is  himself.  For  he  soon  becomes  aware  that 
every  motion  of  his  limbs  has  its  inner  cause,  his 
outward  manifestation  simply  tells  what  is  inward. 
So  the  getting  to  the  point  which  determines 
what  appears  is  his  strongest  aspiration,  and  its 


112  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

fulfillment  brings  his  greatest  pleasure.  If  he 
cuts  open  the  apple  or  the  orange  and  beholds 
the  seed,  he  is  really  at  the  source  of  the  apple 
or  the  orange,  though  he  does  not  know  it;  he 
sees  the  point  whence  the  fruit  came,  he  sees  the 
central  point  which  determined  the  round  ball, 
its  genetic  principle.  Still  he  cannot  see  the 
total  vegetable  process  by  which  the  seed  becomes 
the  apple.  But  he  can  see  directly  with  outer 
vision  the  Cube  and  its  divisions,  by  which  the 
one  larger  Cube  (say  as  parent)  generates  many 
smaller  similar  Cubes  (say  as  children). 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  THIRD.      113 


OBSERVATIONS    ON    THE   THIRD    GIFT. 

1.  As  the  outer  separative  fact  and  the  inner 
separative  act  are  the  most  striking  and  significant 
matters  in  this  Third  Gift,  we  shall  do  well  in 
penetrating  to  its  psychological  import.  The 
infant  loves  the  play  of  separation  and  return, 
and  will  amuse  itself  for  a  long  time  with  the 
simplest  form  thereof.  It  will  take  off  the  lid  of 
a  small  box  and  put  the  same  back  again  over 
and  over  in  dozens  of  repetitions,  out  of  pure 
delight  at  the  process.  We  need  hardly  remind 
the  reader  that  this  process  is  really  that  of  the 
child's  own  Ego,  in  an  external  manifestion. 
The  child,  therefore,  is  finding  himself,  he  is 
getting  to  know  what  he  is  within  by  this  outer 
play ;  he  is  educating  himself ! 

By  means  of  the  Third  Gift  with  its  division, 
the  child  is  developing  the  separative,  analytic, 
discriminating  power  of  mind.  He  must  practice 
the  separative  stage  of  the  Ego,  which  is  the 
first  unfolding  out  of  his  implicit,  potential  state, 
and  corresponds  to  the  bud  separating  itself  into 
the  full-blown  flower.  His  means  of  practice 
must  be  found  in  the  forms  of  the  sense-world, 
especially  in  this  Third  Gift,  which  also  shows 
so  well  the  return  out  of  the  separation. 

8  - 


114  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP 

In  this  process  the  first  separation  which  the 
child  makes  is  to  distinguish  himself  from  the 
block  as  an  object;  thus  he  has  primarily  to 
make  the  distinction  between  himself  and  what  is 
not  himself  (technically  expressed,  between  Ego 
and  non-Ego).  Thereby  he  has  the  ground  of 
all  separation,  division,  distinction  within  him- 
self, ideally ;  this  he  finds  to  be  real  also  in  the 
Cube,  which,  in  a  manner  similar  to  himself, 
divides  within  itself.  Truly  he  is  getting  most 
valuable  experience,  he  is  finding  out  that  the 
whole  material  world  is  separable,  in  fact  is  just 
the  separable,  divisible,  derived,  not  the  self- 
centered  or  the  self-determined. 

Still  he  must  always  re-combine  the  separated ; 
he  must  not  remain  destructive,  but  must  be 
constructive,  nay,  he  must  come  back  to  himself 
through  reconstruction.  This  is  'the  return, 
which,  though  outward,  is  alSo  inward,  having  a 
response  in  the  child's  own  Ego. 

Here  lies  the  deepest  function  of  the  kinder- 
gardner.  She  gives  to  the  child  the  established, 
the  prescribed  —  this  Gift  —  but  in  order  that  he 
may  work  it  over  into  himself  and  thereby  reach 
the  process  of  his  freedom.  She  is  a  kind  of 
Providence  over  the  child,  yet  with  the  one  grand 
end  of  helping  make  him  free.  For  the  child  is 
not  free  at  first  hand,  nor  is  the  man;  he  must 
make  himself  free. 

2.  We  can  still  further  carry  out  the  thought 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  THIRD.      115 

of  measurement,  which  belongs  to  this  Third 
Gift  through  the  division  of  the  Cube  into  Cubes. 
It  contains  a  subtle  psychological  process  which 
we  can  find  by  a  little  study  in  the  right 
direction. 

The  Cube  with  which  the  Gift  starts,  is  imme- 
diate as  a  form  of  magnitude,  is  limited  in  space ; 
it  takes  up  so  much  extension,  it  has  a  bound  on 
the  outside.  In  this  first  stage  it  shows  simple 
quantity  (quantum}  or  magnitude. 

Then  we  pass  to  the  second  stage,  that  of 
separation,  in  which  the  Cube  is  divided  into 
Cubes,  and  the  conception  of  number  enters ; 
how  many  (quanta}  is  now  the  question,  not 
how  much.  Quantity  is  thus  discrete,  and  the 
one  (Cube)  has  become  many  ones  (Cubes). 

Here  we  have  reached  the  unit  of  measure- 
ment, and  with  it  the  third  stage  of  the  psychical 
process  in  which  this  last  unit  returns  and  meas- 
ures the  first  limited  quantity  (quantum).  The 
question  now  is,  How-many  (Cubes)  in  the  How- 
much  (the  one  Cube)?  How  many  cubic  inches 
in  the  given  solid?  This  is  measure. 

Such  is  the  Psychosis  of  quantity,  as  illus- 
trated neatly  and  clearly  by  the  Third  Gift  with 
its  Cube  and  Cubes.  We  shall  set  down  this 
process  briefly  in  outline. 

(1).  How  much  —  simple  magnitude. 

(  2  ) .  How  many  —  number . 

(3).  How  many  in  How  much  — measure. 


116  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

All  of  which  the  child,  simply  observing  and 
then  performing  the  operations  of  the  Third 
Gift,  acquires  unconsciously,  whereby  he  has 
made  a  start  in  geometry,  in  arithmetic,  and  in 
their  unity,  which  is  measure  (or  mensuration). 

It  may  be  said  that  these  Gifts  show  the 
primary  Mathesis,  or  the  becoming  of  Mathe- 
matics, which  is  the  beginning  of  man's  coin- 
pleter  mastery  over  nature,  and  the  primordial 
assertion  of  himself  as  spirit.  We  may  still  find 
in  ourselves  a  sympathetic  response  to  the  idea 
of  ancient  Pythagoras  that  number  is  a  God,  or 
at  least  a  divine  manifestation  of  a  spirit- world. 
But  if  the  old  Greek  altitude  be  a  little  too  great 
for  us  in  these  days,  we  may  come  down  to  earth 
in  the  thought  that  the  child  is  beginning  in  this 
Third  Gift  to  measure  all  things  —  first,  things 
external,  from  which  he  will  certainly  pass  to 
things  internal,  measuring  them  also  by  some 
standard  or  criterion,  ultimately  himself,  or  his 
Ego. 

3.  We  may  note  again  that  the  genetic  process 
in  the  Third  Gift  is  external,  visible,  an  act  of 
material  separation,  producing  from  the  one  large 
Cube  the  little  Cubes  in  an  interesting  family  of 
eight. 

But  if  we  compare  this  open  genetic  process  of 
the  Third  Gift  with  the  secret,  invisible  process 
of  the  Second  Gift,  the  contrast  is  striking. 
The  generation  of  the  Cube  from  the  Ball  is  a 


FBOEBEV SPLAY  GIFTS.—  THE  THIRD.      117 

work  involving  thought,  and  is  far  more  difficult 
for  the  child,  who  can  see  with  his  eyes  the  pro- 
ducing act  of  the  Third  Gift.  Hence  the  one  is 

O 

more  a  thought-gift,  the  other  more  a  sense-gift. 

The  Third  Gift,  therefore,  is  best  for  intro- 
ducing to  the  child  the  genetic  idea  which  runs 
through  all  the  Gifts  and  Occupation,  and  which 
he  is  to  unfold  within  himself,  coming  back  to 
the  inner  and  deeper  phase  of  the  Second  Gift 
when  he  is  more  fully  developed. 

4.  The  division  of  the  Cube  by  three  intersect- 
ing planes  which  cross  at  right  angles  to  one 
another,  and  unite  at  the  center,  has  already 
suggested  the  Third  Gift.  The  skeleton  Cube, 
previously  described,  by  means  of  its  paper 
planes  shows  the  eight  small  Cubes.  The  Third 
Gift  springs  directly  out  of  the  process  of  the 
Second  Gift,  which  is  verily  the  originative  Gift. 

Thus  the  Third  Gift  shows  a  stage  of  evolu- 
tion out  of  what  has  gone  before,  and  presents 
to  the  child  a  little  fortune  in  the  shape  of  men- 
tal training  through  play.  It  brings  to  him 
form,  number,  and  chiefly  measure;  it  calls 
forth  arrangement,  location,  speech;  it  wakens 
his  judgment,  and  starts  his  building  soul  to 
work.  Especially  does  he  begin  to  verify  that 
ancient  definition  of  man  as  the  "  measure  of  all 
things." 


118  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 


THE    FOURTH    GIFT. 

The  two-inch  Cube  is  again  taken  as  the  start- 
ing-point, whereby  the  line  of  connection  with 
what  has  gone  before  is  visibly  kept  up,  Divis- 
ion is  also  introduced,  but  in  a  new  way;  the 
Cube  is  first  halved,  then  each  of  these  halves  is 
halved  at  right  angles  to  the  previous  cut ;  finally 
each  of  these  four  pieces  is  halved,  not  cross- 
wise into  a  Cube  (as  in  the  Third  Gift)  but 
lengthwise  into  a  Parallelopiped  or  Brick.  The 
first  two  cuts  are  the  same  as  in  the  Third  Gift, 
the  last  two  cuts  make  the  difference  of  form 
by  the  difference  of  direction,  which  is  longitu- 
dinal, thus  producing  a  long  block  (or  oblong). 

Mark,  then,  this  change  of  division,  which  is 
really  a  change  of  derivation,  so  that  the  derived 
blocks  have  a  new  shape.  The  result  is  we  see  a 
Gift  with  eight  Bricks  —  forms  oblong,  not 
cubical.  This  manner  of  division  is  always  to  be 
carefully  noted,  for  it  leads  back  to  the  manner 
of  genesis,  the  movement  of  creation,  which 
may  be  compared  with  generation  by  division  in 
Natural  Science  (sometimes  called  fissiparism). 

Thus  the  Cube  in  the  present  Gift  has  pro- 
duced a  shape  unlike  itself  in  shape,  whereas  in 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FOURTH.     119 

the  previous  Gift  the  shape  produced  was  like 
its  own  —  the  cubical  —  though  not  of  like  size. 
The  parent  has  now  begotten  a  child  of  a  more 
deeply  different  character,  not  merely  his  own 
picture  in  miniature  (as  in  the  Third  Gift),  but 
of  another  aspect  and  behavior. 

Now  the  character  of  the  child  must  be  pro- 
nounced to  be  a  decided  advance  upon  that  of  the 
parent,  taking  the  human  as  the  criterion.  The 
Cube  has  begotten  the  Brick,  but  the  latter  is 
more  varied,  more  versatile,  more  man-like  than 
the  former.  Let  us  compare.  The  Cube,  though 
a  stable,  is  a  stolid  being ;  the  same  thing  which- 
ever way  you  place  him;  sameness,  indifference, 
from  whatever  point  you  look  at  him ;  a  figure 
whose  nature  is  to  be  almost  wholly  bottom ;  try  to 
elevate  him  a  little,  raise  him  up  on  his  corner  or 
his  edge;  now  let  go,  and,  behold!  he  falls  back 
upon  his  broad  base  with  a  supreme  content, 
yet  with  a  stolidity  which  is  captivating  to  the 
scoffer,  but  creates  despair  in  the  heart  of  the 
benefactor.  We  might  almost  call  him  a  swine 
for  the  solid  comfort  he  takes  in  lying  down,  and 
we  almost  hear  his  grunt.  Indeed  why  is  not 
that  expressive  term,  solid  comfort,  originally 
derived  from  the  Cube,  the  self-satisfied  solid? 

But  we  have  strangely  disturbed  this  phleg- 
matic repose  of  the  Cube  by  the  new  process  to 
which  we  have  subjected  it.  We  have  divided  it, 
not  according  to  the  three  dimensions  but  accord- 


120  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

ing  to  two  —  say,  height  and  breadth ;  behold  the 
result.  The  third  dimension,  length,  remains 
undivided,  and  in  that  state  appears  in  every 
block  of  the  Gift.  Thus  length  is  emphasized ; 
each  block  is  twice  as  long  as  it  was  in  the  pre- 
vious Gift,  and  the  whole  Fourth  Gift  taken  as 
a  line  is  twice  as  long  as  the  Third  Gift  taken  as 
a  line.  Surely  the  movement  is  toward  the  sur- 
face and  the  line,  ideal  elements  of  magnitude, 
which  are  here  prophesied,  and  which  are  here- 
after to  come  forth  in  their  own  right. 

Let  us  now  take  a  glance  at  the  Brick.  First 
of  all,  he  can  stand  upright,  like  a  human  being, 
even  if  a  little  tottering;  when  he  lies  down,  he 
can  turn  over  on  his  side  —  first  on  his  right  side, 
then  on  his  left  side,  like  many  another  poor 
mortal  seeking  repose.  To  be  sure,  when  he 
does  lie  on  his  back,  he  is  as  flat  as  the  Cube, 
yes,  even  flatter.  Then  he  is  slumbering,  with 
all  his  capabilities  not  only  at  rest  but  asleep. 
Manifestly  the  Fourth  Gift  shows  an  approach 
toward  the  human,  when  compared  with  the 
Third  Gift ;  there  is  an  evolution  out  of  a  lower 
more  homogeneous  form  into  a  higher,  more 
heterogeneous  form. 

This  fact  will  be  further  emphasized  by  noting 
that  the  Brick  has  differences  in  its  parts,  in 
itself.  That  is,  the  Brick  is  not  only  different 
from  the  Cube,  but  is  different  within  itself. 
Three  faces  of  it  differ  from  each  other  —  which 


FROEBEUS  P,LAY  GIFTS.  — THE  FOURTH.     121 

we  shall  designate  as  the  flat  face,  the  side  face, 
and  the  end  face.  Each  of  the  three  dimen- 
sions—  length,  breadth,  height,  is  represented 
differently,  by  a  different  surface  in  size  and 
form,  whereas  in  the  Cube  the  three  dimensions 
are  the  same.  Thus  into  the  shape  itself  differ- 
ence has  entered  —  difference  of  dimensions, 
which  thereby  are  contrasted  with  one  another  in 
the  same  block. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  simple  implicit  unity  of 
the  Cube,  in  which  all  three  dimensions  were 
_  alike  and  indifferent,  has  been  broken  up  by  the 
Fourth  Gift  and  differenced  —  all  three  being 
different  in  the  Brick,  and  likewise  being  made 
visible.  Hence  the  child  can  now  perceive  and 
contrast  length,  breadth,  and  height  in  the  pres- 
ent Gift,  and  learn  the  names  corresponding. 
Moreover  he  can  begin  to  acquire  the  idea  of 
proportion,  as  these  dimensions  are  here  propor- 
tionate :  the  breadth  is  twice  the  height,  and  the 
length  is  twice  the  breadth,  or  four  times  the 
height.  So  the  proportion  1:2:4  becomes  a 
visibly  attested  fact  in  this  Fourth  Gift. 

Moreover,  the  child  will  begin  to  catch  the 
glimmer  of  a  psychical  process  in  these  three 
different  faces  of  the  brick,  each  of  which  has 
one  line  in  common  with  the  other  two  faces,  the 
whole  surface  being  bounded  by  the  repetition  of 
two  different  lines.  For  instance,  the  flat  face 
is  the  largest  in  size,  and  so  has  in  it  the  least 


122  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

difference.  On  the  contrary,  the  end  face  is  the 
least  in  size,  and  so  has  in  it  the  most  difference. 
Finally  the  side  face  is  intermediate,  being 
bounded  by  the  shortest  line  in  common  with  the 
end  face  and  by  the  longest  line  in  common  with 
the  flat  face.  Thus  we  catch  the  faint  outlines 
of  a  Psychosis  in  these  three  faces,  very  external 
and  shadowy  as  being  spatial,  yet  hinting  in  its 
triple  process  the  genetic  source  of  the  three 
faces  and  of  the  three  dimensions  —  length, 
breadth,  and  height — hinting  also  the  reason 
why  there  are  three,  only  three,  and  no  fourth 
dimension. 

In  each  Brick  each  face  is  repeated,  is  double, 
and  the  two  look  in  opposite  directions  —  in 
which  again  difference  appears.  Then  the  Brick 
is  repeated  seven  times,  making  eight  pieces  in  all. 

The  next  matter  coming  up  in  the  considera- 
tion of  the  present  Gift  is  combination.  Herein 
the  field  is  far  larger,  more  varied  and  interesting 
than  in  the  preceding  Gift.  The  power  of  in- 
closing space  is  much  greater  in  the  Bricks  than 
in  the  Cubes,  for  the  Brick  is  a  Cube  flattened 
out  to  twice  its  length. 

Also  we  should  notice  the  different  kinds  of 
superposition,  of  which  the  Cube  has  only  one 
kind,  while  .the  present  Gift  has  three  kinds  — 
end  to  end,  side  to  side,  face  to  face.  Then 
these  three  primary  kinds  of  superposition  are 
combinable  in  an  almost  infinite  diversity  of  ways 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FOURTH.  123 

with  one  another,  showing  a  magic  power  of 
metamorphosis  out  of  the  simplest  forms.  No 
wonder  that  the  elementary  form  of  so  much  of 
man's  construction  goes  back  to  the  Brick. 

The  Cube  has  no  such  innate  power,  as  we 
may  name  it.  The  reason  is  that  the  Cube  has 
no  diversity  in  itself,  in  its  own  nature ;  it  is  every- 
where alike,  in  length,  breadth,  height.  But  the 
Brick  has  just  this  diversity  within  itself,  each 
dimension  is  different,  and  this  difference  is  car- 
ried over  into  every  form  constructed  of  it.  The 
indifference  of  the  Cube  destroys  its  formative 
power. 

But  with  this  increase  of  formability  in  the 
Fourth  Gift  there  is  need  of  a  corresponding 
increase  of  skill  in  manipulation.  The  hand  of 
the  child  now  gets  unusual  lessons  in  delicacy  of 
movement,  and  his  eye  must  employ  niceties  of 
discernment  never  before  called  forth.  Let  him 
stand  the  eight  Bricks  end  to  end,  one  on  top  of 
the  other ;  it  is  quite  a  discipline,  not  only  for  hand 
and  eye,  but  also  for  the  inner  spirit.  Surely 
the  child  has  to  balance  himself  within  before  he 
can  perform  this  act  outside ;  his  mental  line  of 
gravitation  must  be  put  within  its  base,  before  he 
can  adjust  the  physical  line  of  gravitation  in  cor- 
respondence. The  equilibrium  of  the  blocks 
compels  the  equilibrium  of  his  Ego,  which  has  to 
pass  from  the  unbalanced  to  the  balanced  in  this 
Gift,  from  the  scattered  to  the  collected. 


124  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

It  has  long  been  noted  by  observers  that  the 
child  is  much  fonder  of  the  Fourth  than  of  the 
Third  Gift.  The  reason  becomes  obvious  from 
the  preceding  statements.  The  Cube  is  monoto- 
nous, has  in  it  too  little  difference  to  call  forth 
the  separative  stage  of  his  mind,  which  is  really 
his  creative  energy.  But  the  Brick  has  diversity 
in  its  very  form,  yes  a  triple  diversity,  which  at 
once  appeals  to  him  because  it  corresponds  to  the 
triple  activity  of  his  Ego,  which  is  thus  roused 
from  its  dormant  state  by  the  voice  of  the  outer 
object  attuned  to  his  own  soul. 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  — THE  FOURTH.      125 


OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FOURTH  GIFT. 

1.  A  very  significant  point  in  the  Fourth  Gift 
is  its  power  of  inclosure,  which  is  the  main  ele- 
ment of  it  as  a  Building  Gift.  For  all  houses  are 
inclosures,  and  the  walls  are  made  of  some  kind 
of  block,  —  stone,  wood,  brick.  The  child  may 
begin  to  remake  in  this  gift  the  first  faint  out- 
line of  his  own  abode,  the  house  where  he  was 
born,  which  in  one  way  or  other  he  has  to  recon- 
struct at  some  time  for  himself,  though  it  has  to 
be  given  him  at  the  start. 

The  Third  Gift  has  a  very  small  power  of 
inclosure;  the  eight  Cubes  are  able  to  inclose 
just  one  of  their  kind,  when  completely  used  for 
a  wall.  But  the  Fourth  Gift  has  a  relatively 
great  power  of  inclosure,  which  varies  from  the 
size  of  two  Cubes  up  to  twelve  and  more.  There 
are  three  fundamental  ways  of  inclosing  through 
the  Bricks :  by  placing  them  together  on  the 
end-face,  on  the  side-face,  and  on  the  flat-face. 
Each  of  these  three  ways  of  inclosure  has  two 
different  forms,  the  oblong  and  the  square;  the 
latter  will  inclose  more  than  the  former.  The 
Cubes  of  the  Third  Gift,  however,  when  used  as 
a  complete  wall,  will  produce  no  oblong  form, 


126  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

but  simply  the  square  form,  inside  of  which  is  the 
empty  square.  The  diversity  of  the  Fourth  Gift, 
or,  we  may  say,  the  versatility  of  it,  is,  in  this 
regard,  marked  by  a  striking  contrast  with  the 
stolid  conservatism  of  the  Third  Gift,  which, 
amid  all  its  changes,  cannot  be  driven  from  its 
square  or  cubical  form,  or  only  with  great 
unwillingness. 

Indeed  two  very  different  temperaments  they 
have,  these  two  Gifts;  the  one  phlegmatic,  we 
were  going  to  say  Teutonic,  but  that  is  not  exactly 
fair,  especially  to  our  beloved  Teuton  Froebel. 
The  other  is  sanguineous,  we  were  going  to  say 
American,  changeful,  adjustable,  possibly  a  little 
volatile,  certainly  capable  of  presenting  a  num- 
ber of  different  sides  to  the  world  by  merely 
turning  over. 

2.  Still  the  Third  Gift  has  its  own  special 
province,  its  own  function,  which  it  is  to  fulfill 
in  the  organism  of  these  Gifts.  We  have  already 
said  that  it  was  'the  measurer,  that  it  had  the 
modulus  or  measuring  unit  for  all  space  and  all 
matter.  Accordingly  the  Cube  is  used  as  the 
measurer  of  the  Brick  in  all  its  shapes,  as  well  as 
of  what  it  incloses.  For  instance,  the  child  puts 
the  Cube  inside  the  inclosed  space  which  the 
flat  sides  of  the  Brick  placed  together  produces, 
and  he  find  show  many  Cubes  it  will  hold.  Thus 
he  starts  to  measuring  his  little  universe,  and  he 
begins  to  behold  in  it  an  order,  whereby  cosmos 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FOURTH.     127 

primordially   rose   out   of  choas,    and    will   rise 
again  out  of  his  chaotic  little  soul. 

So  the  Third  Gift  retains  its  character  and 
function,  it  is  not  by  any  means  lost  or  to  be 
lost  in  the  multiplicity  and  changefulness  of  the 
chameleon-like  Fourth  Gift.  Its  very  solidity 
and  permanence  makes  it  the  basis  of  measure- 
ment, for  the  standard  ought  not  to  change. 
Its  fixed  character  causes  it  to  be  a  fixed  criterion 
for  guaging  anything.  The  objections  which 
have  been  '  urged  against  the  Third  Gift  on 
account  of  its  lack  of  variety  and  variability,  are 
really  in  its  favor  when  it  is  regarded  in  its  true 
function,  that  of  furnishing  the  measuring  unit 
to  the  child,  and  also  to  the  man. 

3.  In  such  fashion  we  may  unite  in  a  kind  of 
marriage  the  Third  and  Fourth  Gifts,  and  make 
the  union  a  happy  one.     The   heavy  Cube  and 
the  versatile  Brick — each  has  its  own  part  and 
place  in  the  kindergarden  family.     In  a  number 
of  respects  they  are  alike,  each  has  eight  corners, 
twelve  edges,  six  sides,  thus  hinting  the  common 
derivation  which  we  saw  coming  forth  from  the 
Sphere.     Both    are   rectilinear  and  rectangular, 
though  in  different  ways. 

4.  Another  analogy  we  may  draw,  taken  from 
the  past  nations  of  the  world,  though  such  anal- 
ogy must  not  be  pushed  too  far.     The  Cube  and 
the   square   are   more  Egyptian,  the  Brick  and 
the   parallelogram   are  more  Greek.     The  pyra- 


128  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

midal  form,  which  belongs  with  such  tremendous 
emphasis  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  rises  to  a 
point  out  of  a  Cube,  as  already  set  forth ;  the 
form  of  a  Greek  temple  was  that  of  the  oblong 
parallelepiped  —  the  Brick  with  a  slanting  roof 
set  on  top.  The  ground  plan,  the  faces  and 
sides  of  the  Parthenon  are  parallelograms,  as 
well  as  the  temenos  or  sacred  inclosure.  Egyp- 
tian art  is  massive  like  the  Cube,  heavy,  fixed, 
unfree,  monotonous,  full  of  samenesss  and  self- 
repetition  to  a  surprising  degree  —  think  of  those 
six  hundred  sphinxes  and  more  ranged  in  two 
lines  along  each  side  of  the  road  at  Luxor. 
Greek  art  has  variety,  has  freedom,  and  thus 
strikes  the  key-note  of  all  artistic  form  for  the 
future.  Yet  both  Egypt  and  Greece  contributed 
mightily  to  the  culture  of  the  human  race ;  both 
peoples,  we  would  fain  think,  have  a  faint,  far- 
off  reflection  in  these  two  play-gifts  of  Froebel, 
intended  for  the  little  child  who  is  to  play  over 
in  his  way  the  history  of  humanity.  So  we  may 
say,  if  we  keep  in  the  bounds  of  moderation,  that 
the  Third  Gift  is  an  Egyptian,  and  the  Fourth 
Gift  a  Greek. 

5.  The  Brick  has  varying  degrees  of  stability, 
as  an  offset  to  its  versatility ;  the  Cube  has  one 
and  the  same  degree  of  stability,  as  an  offset  to 
its  stolidity.  Each  has  its  drawbacks  along  with 
its  advantages.  Place  the  Bricks  erect  in  a  row, 
and  each  seeuis  to  stand  up  like  a  man ;  but  a 


FKOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FOURTH.      129 

little  blow  from  the  outside  upsets  it,  and  if  it 
falls  against  its  neighbor,  the  whole  row  goes 
down.  You  cannot  do  that  with  a  Cube  or  a 
row  of  Cubes ;  it  presents  the  same  stolid,  stoical 
face  to  the  blow  of  fate ;  though  you  tumble  it 
over,  you  cannot  upset  it,  as  it  presents  to  you 
exactly  the  same  look  without  the  least  twitch  or 
distortion  of  feature,  changeless  as  the  face  of 
the  Sphinx.  I  do  not  think  that  I  like  very  well 
that  play  of  the  Bricks  in  which  the  whole  row 
is  made  to  fall  by  some  external  impact,  though 
undoubtedly  the  children  are  fond  of  it,  and  it 
seems  to  have  the  approval  of  Froebel.  But  it 
has  too  strong  a  flavor  of  external  determination, 
of  unfreedom,  in  fine,  of  fatalism,  which  is  cer- 
tainly not  to  become  the  belief  of  the  child,  at 
least  not  in  a  free  land.  Not  too  much  of  that 
play,  my  dear  kindergardner.  Rather  that  other 
play  of  equilibrium,  which  cultivates  the  well- 
balanced  soul  within,  erecting  a  lofty  monument 
of  eight  Bricks  end  on  end,  without  its  toppling. 
A  little  feat  of  daring  it  is,  which,  however,  can 
be  done  with  perfect  safety  by  keeping  the  center 
of  gravity  always  inside  the  base. 

It  is  true  that  the  historic  parallel  already 
hinted  holds  good  here :  the  Greek  world,  with 
all  its  genius  and  versatility,  was  at  last  struck 
by  the  blow  of  fate,  coming  from  an  outer  might, 
which  hurled  it  as  a  nation  to  the  ground,  never 
to  rise  again  in  its  ancient  glory.  Well,  that 

9 


130  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

blow  of  fate  struck  Egypt  too,  which  stood  the 
puinmeling  thousands  of  years,  it  may  be  said, 
before  the  Cube  was  broken  to  pieces.  But  the 
pyramid  and  the  sphinx  are  there  yet. 

6.  The  Brick  shows  more  the  surface,  less  the 
solid ;  is  more  ideal,  less  material  than  the  Cube ; 
shows  a  movement  from  Concrete  towards 
Abstract  Magnitude. 

It  has  a  triple  diversity,  yet  also  repetition ; 
but  it  is  just  this  diversity  which  is  repeated. 
Thus  the  Brick  may  be  called  double-faced ;  the 
front  face  which  is  seen,  suggests  the  threefold 
variation  —  length,  breadth,  thickness;  but  the 
rear  face  which  is  unseen,  is  simply  a  copy  of 
the  front  face;  so  the  Brick,  though  double- 
faced,  is  honest. 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIFTH.      131 


THE    FIFTH    GIFT. 

The  Cube  is  again  taken  as  the  starting-point 
in  the  present  Gift,  but  it  is  the  three-inch  Cube. 
It  is  now  divided  into  three  sections,  in  three 
different  ways  —  length,  breadth,  and  height. 
The  result  is  27  one-inch  Cubes,  in  contrast  with 
the  8  one-inch  Cubes  of  the  Third  Gift.  Here 
we  see  the  connection  between  these  two  Gifts,  as 
well  as  their  primary  difference.  The  unit  of 
measure  is  the  same,  but  in  the  one  case  there  is 
the  cube  of  two,  and  in  the  other  case  the  cube 
of  three. 

Here  it  is  necessary  for  the  student  to  begin  to 
consider  the  reverse  process  in  both  these  Gifts. 
If  the  large  Cube  be  taken  as  the  unit  (which  is 
possible),  we  have  the  regressive  or  fractional 
series ;  for  instance,  in  the  two-inch  Cube  (Third 
Gift)  it  is  V2,  Vi,  Vs ;  while  in  the  three-inch  Cube  it 
is  Vs,  Vg,  V27.  To  be  sure,  this  regressive  or  frac- 
tional series  is  as  yet  implicit,  not  yet  unfolded, 
but  is  soon  to  be  unfolded ;  we  shall  see  it  make 
its  appearance  in  the  course  of  the  present  Gift, 
in  which  the  fractional  act  is  made  external  and 
visible  to  the  child. 

Such  is  the  primary  division  or  derivation  of 


132  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  Fifth  Gift;  but  now  comes  the  secondary 
division  which  is  wholly  different  in  kind  from 
any  division  heretofore.  This  is  the  diagonal 
division.  Three  of  the  one-inch  Cubes  are 
halved  by  a  diagonal  line  bisecting  opposite 
right  angles,  making  six  triangular  half -Cubes 
(prisms).  Then  still  another  cut  at  right  angles 
to  the  preceding  cut  gives  four  quarter-Cubes, 
making  twelve  such  pieces  for  three  Cubes. 

As  the  result  of  the  foregoing  divisions  we 
have  before  us  the  Fifth  Gift,  made  up  of  6 
triangular  half -Cubes,  12  triangular  quarter- 
Cubes,  one-half  in  size  but  the  same  in  form, 
and  21  Cubes  —  39  pieces  in  all. 

We  may  now  study  the  various  kinds  of  dif- 
ference which  have  been  introduced  by  the  above 
divisions.  First  of  all,  the  derived  forms  are  in 
part  like  and  in  part  unlike  the  total  Gift,  which 
is  a  Cube.  Thus  they  unite  in  this  regard  the 
Third  and  the  Fourth  Gifts,  combining  the  like- 
ness and  the unlikeness  of  both.  Herein  we  may 
note  the  advance  of  the  Fifth  Gift.  In  the  sec- 
ond place,  the  derived  forms  differ  from  one 
another  in  part,  and  in  part  resemble  one 
another.  To  be  more  precise,  there  are  three 
sets  of  descendants  from  the  ancestral  Cube  in 
the  present  household ;  first,  there  are  the  chil- 
dren, the  small  Cubes,  just  like  the  parent  in 
form,  only  not  so  large ;  secondly,  there  are  the 
grandchildren,  the  half -Cubes,  sprung  of  the  chil- 


FBOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIFTH.      133 

dren,  the  small  Cubes,  but  not  resembling  father 
or  grandfather  in  form,  or  just  half  like  him; 
finally  there  are  the  great-grandchildren,  the 
little  quarter-Cubes,  sprung  of  the  half -Cubes, 
sprung  of  the  little  Cubes,  sprung  of  the  big 
Cube.  Such  a  lengthy  genealogy  rises  before 
our  astonished  eyes  in  this  business  —  a  gene- 
alogy not  temporal  but  spiritual. 

In  the  third  place,  we  must  consider  the  differ- 
ences which  are  in  the  form  taken  by  itself  — 
differences  in  dimension.  Here  the  three  sets  of 
descendants  show  diversity,  eacU  being  marked 
by  its  peculiar  traits,  each  having  its  own  individ- 
uality. The  Cube  has  no  difference  in  the  three 
dimensions,  being  alike  in  length,  breadth,  and 
height.  But  the  half-Cube  has  within  itself  two 
different  dimensions,  so  too  the  quarter-Cube, 
which,  however,  differs  from  the  half -Cube  in 
size.  It  may  be  here  added,  in  parenthesis,  that 
the  perpendicular  height  of  these  triangular 
prisms  is  not  considered,  otherwise  each  of  the 
three  dimensions  in  them  would  be  different. 

The  foregoing  account  seeks  to  describe  the 
nature  and  the  genesis  of  the  Fifth  Gift.  Next 
we  ask  for  its  central  fact,  its  very  heart. 
What  is  the  distinguishing  part  of  it  ?  Can 
we  put  our  finger  upon  its  essential  character- 
istic? 

Undoubtedly  the  diagonal  division  is  the  dis- 
tinctive thing  in  the  present  Gift.  It  introduces 


134  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

a  new  geometric  principle,  the  bisection  of  an 
angle,  not  of  a  line  as  hitherto.  It  calls  up  a 
new  geometric  form,  the  triangle;  previously  we 
have  seen  only  quadrangular  shapes  (except  those 
made  by  external  combination).  Moreover  it 
brings  to  view  a  new  angle,  the  acute;  hitherto 
we  have  had 'only  right  angles.  We  see  plainly 
that  a  vast  fresh  vein  of  geometric  wealth  has 
been  opened ;  to  the  sides  of  the  figure  have  been 
added  angles,  and  to  the  quadrangular  has  been 
added  the  triangular.  On  account  of  this  pro- 
fusion of  geometrical  elements  the  present 
Gift  is  especially  rich  in  symmetrical  forms 
(usually  called  by  kindergardners  forms  of 
beauty)  which  are  mainly  based  on  balanced 
geometric  relations.  Indeed  these  forms  are 
much  better  adapted  to  this  than  to  any  other 
Gift,  for  the  Fifth  Gift  is  the  most  completely 
geometrical  of  all  the  Building  Gifts. 

But  that  which  we  may  set  down  as  the  most 
important  educative  fact  of  the  Gift  is  that  the 
fraction  now  appears  to  the  vision  of  the  child, 
and,  more  remotely,  the  measurement  by  frac- 
tions. In  the  Third  and  Fourth  Gifts  we  have  had 
the  one-inch  Cube  as  the  unit  of  measurement ; 
but  in  the  present  (Fifth)  Gift  we  have  also  the 
one-inch  Cube  bi-sected  and  doubly  bi-sected; 
the  result  is  the  appearance  of  the  fraction  of 
the  inch.  That  is,  the  unit  of  measure  now 
measures  not  simply  wholes  of  itself,  but  parts 


FROEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  FIFTH.      135 

of  itself  likewise ;  it  works  by  division  as  well  as 
by  multiplication. 

Thus  the  fraction  becomes  explicit  in  the  pres- 
ent Gift,  explicit  in  thought;  previously  it  has 
been  implicit  in  thought,  the  fractional  possibility 
of  the  Third  Gift  was  not  developed  in  treating 
of  that  Gift.  But  now  we  go  back  to  it  and  be- 
hold our  new  knowledge  applicable  there  also; 
the  child  is  likewise  to  return  and  see  the  new 
fact  in  the  old  play.  In  the  Third  Gift  we  may 
now  unfold  the  fractional  series  of  two,  namely, 
J/2,  J/4, 1/s ;  and  in  the  Fifth  Gift  we  still  further 
unfold  the  fractional  series  of  three,  namely,  Vs, 
Vg,  V27.  Thus  we  have  developed  for  the  child 
the  two  kinds  of  series,  multiplicative  and  frac- 
tional, in  two  different  numbers  (two  and  three). 
And  these  numbers,  we  should  note  well,  make 
up  the  thought-basis  of  all  numbers,  with  the 
one  added,  which  is  also  present  as  the  starting 
point  in  either  series  and  in  both  Gifts. 

Such,  then,  is  the  beginning,  and  we  may 
repeat  that  the  first  three  numbers  —  one,  two, 
three  —  constitute  the  generative  thought  for  all 
other  numbers.  And  the  psychological  reason 
even  if  a  little  abstruse  may  be  here  given  to  the 
kindergardner :  these  three  numbers  are  a  Psy- 
chosis, the  primary  triple  process  of  the  Ego 
numbered  —  that  is,  each  step  of  this  process  is 
held  apart  by  itself,  and  the  acts  of  such  abstrac- 
tion are  named  in  order,  one,  two,  three.  Such 


136  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

is  the  numerical  Psychosis,  foundation  of  all 
number  begotten  by  the  Ego  for  the  Ego,  and 
hence  bearing  the  impress  of  its  threefold  move- 
ment, namely,  unity  (one),  separation  (two), 
return  (three). 

Accordingly,  the  child  sees  and  makes  frac- 
tions in  seeing  and  making  that  diagonal  cut; 
further,  he  beholds  the  principle  of  fractional 
division  repeated  in  the  second  cut.  And  now 
we  wish  to  declare  our  opinion  that  the  third 
and  fourth  cuts  ought  to  be  made  or  some- 
how represented  in  at  least  one  of  these  one- 
inch  Cubes,  through  bisecting  the  four  right 
angles  at  the  center,  whereby  the  Cube  will 
be  divided  into  eight  small  triangular  prisms. 
Thus  the  fractional  series  (J/2,  Vi,  Vs)  is 
made  complete,  and  the  conjunction  with  the 
Third  Gift  is  without  a  break.  As  it  is,  the 
last  link  of  connection  seems  missing,  and  the 
chain  is  left  hanging  down  in  the  air,  without 
having  joined  itself  to  its  source.  For  the  Fifth 
Gift,  as  we  have  it,  stops  the  series  with  1/2  and 
!/4,  omitting  Vs,  which  leaves  one  of  its  most 
important  relations  to  the  Third  Gift  unestab- 
lished,  and  its  symmetry,  specially  its  cubical 
symmetry,  incomplete  (Vs  being  a  numerical 
cube). 

Thus  the  Fifth  Gift  would  show  the  unity 
between  the  two  complete  fractional  series :  that 
based  on  three,  Vs,  Vg,  VST,  and  also  that  based 


FROE  BEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  FIFTH.      137 

on  two,  V2,  */4,  Vs.  In  this  respect  it  would  be 
a  perfect  unification  of  the  two  Gifts,  without  a 
fragment  or  fraction  missing. 

But  in  the  sweep  of  this  Gift  is  found  a  deeper, 
more  comprehensive  unity  than  in  the  foregoing 
unity  of  the  fractional  element  taken  by  itself  — 
the  unity  between  both  the  fractional  and  the 
multiplicative.  This  will  be  manifest  in  the 
following  statement :  — 

1.  It    has    the   progressive   or   multiplicative 
series,  composed  of  the  multiples  of  the  unit  of 
measure  (cubic  inch). 

2.  It   has   the   regressive  or  fractional  series 
composed   of  divisions    of   the  unit  of  measure 
(cubic  inch). 

3.  It  has  their  unity  in  its  movement,  for  these 
fractions   reunite   and   return   to   their    source, 
which  is  the  unit  of  measure,  and  which  is  thus 
restored  out  of  its  division. 

We  need  hardly  remind  our  reader  that  here 
again  we  find  the  psychical  process  of  the  Ego. 
And  it  all  can  be  played  by  the  child  and  taken  up 
into  his  mind  through  play.  The  whole  thing  is 
visible  in  the  blocks  and  their  manipulation. 
It  can  be  truly  said  that  the  child  is  now  playing 
mathematics  into  himself  —  both  geometry  and 
arithmetic,  as  well  as  their  union  in  measure  (or 
mensuration). 

Among  the  arithmetical  forms  and  processes  we 
note  the  odd  and  even  numbers,  the  integer  and 


138  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  fraction,  the  multiplication  and  the  division 
of  them  in  many  ways,  even  their  self -multiplica- 
tion and  self -division,  in  the  forms  of  cubing  and 
squaring,  as  well  as  of  cube-root  and  square-root. 
The  geometric  forms  we  have  already  noticed  in 
treating  of  the  different  angles,  and  also  trian- 
gular and  quadrangular  shapes. 

It  is  not  so  good  a  Building  Gift  as  some 
others,  still  we  must  observe  that  to  the  cubical 
or  cuboidal  house  it  adds  a  roof  with  its  trian- 
gular gable  or  pediment.  Also  the  child  may 
begin  to  build  round,  making  the  suggestion  of 
an  arch  by  using  the  small  triangular  prisms  as 
voussoirs. 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  FIFTH.      139 


OBSERVATIONS  ON    THE    FIFTH    GIFT. 

1.  One  of  the  difficult  questions  in  regard  to 
this  Gift  pertains  to  its  adaptation  to  the  child. 
August  Koehler,  who  had  great  insight  into  the 
practical  side  of  the  Gifts,  and  was  a  very  suc- 
cessful trainer  of  kindergardners,  says  it  ought 
not  to  be  given  before  the  fifth  year,  and  ought 
not  to   be    withdrawn   before   the   eighth   year 
(see  his  Praxis  I.  202).     It  would  have,  there- 
fore, to  pass    out  of  the  kindergarden  into  the 
primary  grade,  or  connecting  school.     Koehler 's 
thought  is  that  the  Fifth  Gift  should  be  taught 
through  a  period    of  three  years.     Goldammer 
would  extend  this  period,  making  it  four  years, 
two  in  the  kindergarden,  and  two  in  the  next 
grade. 

2.  It  would  be  well  to  have  a  second  size  of 
this    Gift — a   cubic   foot   has  been   suggested. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  smaller  pieces  of  this 
Gift  in  its  present  size  make  it  difficult  for  chil- 
dren to   handle.     If  the  division  into  eighths  be 
added,   the  difficulty  is  increased.     The  claim  is 
made  that  for  group  work  the  larger  size  is  bet- 
ter.    The  child  may  also  behold  advantageously 


140  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  foot  —  linear,  square,  cubic —  as  the  foot  be- 
comes the  standard  for  all  large  measurements, 
and  the  inch  drops  into  the  background.  Then 
there  is  something  in  having  the  larger  child 
advance  to  the  larger  blocks,  with  which  he  has 
been  before  familiar  in  a  smaller  form.  Pos- 
sibly the  one  size  could  be  used  in  the  kin- 
dergarden,  and  the  other  size  in  the  advanced 
grade. 

Already  we  have  had  two  different  sizes  of  the 
Cube;  this  new  size  will  give  a  third  one,  which 
is  a  multiple  of  the  other  too ;  thus  the  child  has 
a  new  field  of  comparison  as  well  as  a  fresh 
application  of  the  unit  of  measure.  Though  the 
material  be  increased,  the  time  employed  upon 
this  Gift  can  remain  about  the  same. 

With  the  large  size  the  fractional  element, 
which  is  the  salient  characteristic  of  the  present 
Gift,  becomes  more  striking  to  the  mind  of  the 
child,  more  easy  to  be  handled,  and  hence  more 
easy  to  be  played  with.  That  is,  the  most  import- 
ant meaning  of  the  Gift  becomes  more  accessible 
to  the  child,  for  whom  it  was  intended. 

3.  When  we  come  to  the  Gifts   of   Abstract 
Magnitude,  we  shall  find  that  the  Fifth  Gift  has 
furnished  the  solid  form  from  which  the  triangle 
is  taken.     This  triangle   is   the   right   isosceles 
tablet. 

4.  This  Gift,  taken   as  whole,   is  capable  of 
being  divided  into  halves,  thirds,  fourths,  sixths, 


FEOEEEU S  PLA Y  GIFTS.—  THE  FIFTH.      U 1 

and  even  twelfths.  Thus  division  become  visible 
to  the  child  in  play.  By  the  same  means  multi- 
plication can  be  shown.  But  it  is  not  the  pur- 
pose of  this  book  to  go  into  the  manipulation  of 
the  present  Gift  or  of  other  Gifts ;  so  we  may 
pass  to  the  next. 


142  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 


SIXTH  GIFT. 

The  three-inch  Cube  is  again  taken  as  the 
starting-point,  which  fact  connects  the  present 
with  the  preceding  Gift  at  the  beginning,  while 
the  cubical  form  unites  it  with  the  whole  series 
of  Building  Gifts.  The  primary  division  of  the 
Cube  is  into  27  oblong  Bricks  (parallelopipeds), 
which  fact  carries  the  present  Gift  back  to  the 
Fourth  Gift  in  a  strong  bond  of  connection. 
Yet  the  number  of  pieces  is  the  same  as  in  the 
Fifth  Gift,  and  a  Brick,  though  so  different  in 
form,  is  equal  in  size  to  a  one-inch  Cube,  being 
1/27  of  the  large  Cube.  So  the  Brick  can  also  be 
the  unit  of  measure.  And  the  same  fractional 
relations  exist  between  the  Sixth  and  the  Fourth, 
as  we  noticed  existing  between  the  Fifth  and  the 
Third  (Vj,  V9,  V27  and  1/2,  V*,  Vg).  Still  the 
unit  of  measure  must  remain  the  cubic  inch,  for 
it  is  easily  adjustable  to  all  solid  shapes  on  account 
of  its  equal  dimensions,  while  the  Brick,  with  all 
three  of  its  dimensions  unequal,  would  be  a  very 
intractable  unit  of  measure.  So  the  Cube  of  the 
Fifth  Gift  and  the  Brick  of  the  Sixth  Gift  are 
the  same  in  contents,  but  diverse  in  form. 

The   Sixth  Gift  has  also  a  secondary  division 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SIXTH.      143 

(like  the  Fifth)  but  in  a  very  different  way. 
Six  Bricks  are  halved  transversely,  making  twelve 
square  plinths,  and  three  are  halved  longitudi- 
nally, making  six  square  columns  or  pillars.  Such 
a  division  is  not  diagonal,  or  of  the  angle  (as  in 
the  Fifth  Gift)  but  diaplagial,  of  the  side  or 
edge. 

The  result  of  the  two  divisions  just  described 
will  give  the  following  forms  for  the  Sixth  Gift : 

18  Bricks  undivided 18  Bricks. 

6  Bricks  halved  crosswise   .     .     .     12  Plinths. 
3  Bricks  halved  lengthwise     '.     .       6  Pillars. 

Thus  we  have  36  pieces  all  told.  We  may 
next  consider  the  various  differences  which  have 
been  introduced  into  this  Gift  by  the  divisions 
just  described.  In  the  first  place,  the  derived 
forms  are  totally  unlike  the  whole  Gift,  as  we 
also  saw  in  the  Fourth.  In  the  second  place,  the 
derived  forms  differ  from  one  another  in  part, 
and  in  part  are  like  one  another,  as  in  the  Fifth 
Gift.  Here  we  may  employ  the  same  image  we 
did  there,  an  image  taken  from  the  domestic 
relation.  We  observe  three  sets  of  descendants 
from  the  ancestral  Cube.  First,  there  are  the 
immediate  children  of  the  parent,  the  Bricks, 
unlike  him  both  in  form  and  size;  secondly, 
then  come  the  grandchildren  in  two  different 
breeds,  and  both  of  them  unlike  their  parents  or 
their  grandparent.  The  fact  is,  there  seems  to 


144  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

be  in  this  Gift  a  tendency  in  the  descendants  to 
shun  any  kinship  with  their  progenitors,  the 
children  disown  their  ancestry,  disclaiming  to 
look  like  their  fathers.  What  is  the  matter? 
Some  trouble  in  the  family,  or  an  increase  of 
freedom?  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  this 
difference  between  parents  and  children  has  been 
growing  ever  since  the  Third  Gift,  in  whose 
happy  domestic  circle  everybody  was  like  every- 
body else  in  looks. 

In  the  third  place,  we  must  consider  the  differ- 
ences within  the  form  itself  —  differences  of 
dimension.  The  brick  is  herein  the  opposite 
of  the  Cube,  having  a  different  length,  breadth, 
and  height,  not  one  dimension  of  it  alike.  But 
the  Plinth  and  the  Pillar  have  each  two  dimensions 
alike  and  one  different ;  the  Plinth  has  length  and 

o 

breadth  the  same  but  not  height ;  the  Pillar  has 
breadth  and  height  the  same,  but  not  length. 
Thus  in  the  Sixth  Gift  the  three  sets  of  descend- 
ants have  each  in  its  way  a  difference  in  its  own 
form;  we  may  call  it  a  rise  in  individuality. 
Hence  the  Sixth  Gift  shows  greater  independence 
in  its  members  than  the  Fifth  Gift,  or  any  other 
Building  Gift.  This  fact  we  may  set  down  as 
progress.  For  the  homogeneous  is  becoming 
more  and  more  heterogeneous  in  the  organism  of 
these  Gifts,  which  statement  indicates  the  upward 
movement  of  organic  growth.  Or,  taking  another 
formula,  the  physical  instead  of  the  biological, 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— TUB  SIXTH.      145 

we  may  say  that  the  process  of  these  Gifts  is 
more  and  more  approaching  the  process  of  the 
Ego,  which  is  really  their  creative  prototype  as 
well  as  their  end. 

If  we  now  seek  out  and  emphasize  the  dis- 
tinctive thing  in  the  present  Gift,  we  shall  find  it 
in  the  secondary  division  of  the  Brick,  the  di- 
vision into  Pillar  and  Plinth.  The  latter  are  new 
forms  which  re-inforce  strongly  the  architectural 
element  in  these  Building  Gifts.  Previously  we 
had  inclosure,  the  wall,  which  is  a  product  of  the 
Fourth  Gift  specially  with  its  Bricks ;  but  now 
we  have  that  which  holds  up  the  ceiling  or  roof 
of  the  inclosed  space,  and  leaves  the  room  within 
substantially  free.  For  in  this  Gift  a  Pillar  can 
take  the  place  of  a  wall,  as  far  as  supporting  the 
cover  overhead  is  co'ncerned,  and  wide  entrances, 
colonnades,  open  spaces  are  possible  under  roof. 
The  architectural  suggestion  comes  out  strongly, 
as  we  may  note  by  the  following  forms  with  their 
meaning:  — 

1 .  The  Pillar  which  supports  what  is  above  and 
does  not  inclose,  its  idea  and  purpose  being.that 
of  support. 

2.  The   Plinth,  placed    under   the  Pillar  as  a 
strong  broad  foundation  resting  upon  the  earth. 

3.  The  Cross-beam,  or  architrave,  that  which 
is  supported  by  the  Pillar.     It  may  be  the  Brick 
laid  upon  its  narrow  edge  and  reposing  on  two  Pil- 
lars, with  an  open  entrance  below.     Or  the  Cross- 

10 


14G  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

beam  may  be  another  Pillar  laid  horizontally 
upon  the  two  perpendicular  Pillars  and  connect- 
ing them.  This  typical  form  repeated  will  pro- 
duce the  edifice  with  its  two  constructive  elements, 
the  supporting  and  the  supported. 

Moreover,  this  architecture  will  suggest  the 
Greek,  with  its  severe  simplicity,  with  its  recti- 
lineal and  rectangular  forms.  Yet  not  quite 
Greek,  as  the  round  column  is  wanting;  still 
here  is  the  square  column  (Pillar),  and  we  may 
secretly  feel  its  struggle  for,  or  its  longing  after 
rotundity,  which  must  soon  come. 

The  division  lengthwise  and  crosswise  which  is 
the  central  fact  of  the  present  Gift  is  found  in 
all  structure.  Every  architectural  facade  has 
such  a  division  when  carefully  analyzed.  The 
human  shape  has  such  a  division  in  its  median 
line  and  in  its  two  sides,  or  bilateralness,  the 
latter  being  indicated  most  completely  in  the  two 
arms  extended.  The  great  works  of  literature 
are  architectonic,  and  are  to  be  studied  in  their 
structural  divisions.  Shakespeare's  plays  are 
built  on  lines  running  lengthwise  and  crosswise, 
which  reveal  the  grand  masses  and  proportions  of 
his  work.  So  the  temple,  the  church,  the  artistic 
product;  the  cross  itself  is  primarily  a  rude  but 
fundamental  image  of  man's  own  tabernacle,  his 
body. 

The  student  may  now  see  why  the  Sixth  Gift 
is"  so  dominantly  architectural  with  its  three 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SIXTH,      14? 

forms,  in  contrast  with  the  Fifth  Gift,  which 
lends  itself  better  to  the  symmetrical  figures  of  a 
geometric  pattern,  and  hence  leans  more  to  orna- 
mental than  to  constructive  work.  The  Fifth 
Gift  is  chiefly  for  decorating  the  Sixth  Gift. 
Out  of  the  one  we  can  make  an  inclosure,  but  out 
of  the  other  we  can  build  a  house.  It  is  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  Fifth  Gift  that  it  has  the  shape 
of  a  roof  in  one  of  its  blocks,  and  so  has  a  place 
in  building. 

We  are  inclined  to  suggest  a  new  division 
in  this  Gift.  The  pillar  may  be  divided  cross- 
wise into  two  half  pillars,  and  these  again  divided 
into  two  smaller  Cubes,  one-fourth  of  the  size  of 
the  pillar.  Undoubtedly  there  comes  the  diffi- 
culty of  handling  these  little  pieces  on  the  part 
of  the  child.  Still  we  have  to  think  that  the 
Sixth  Gift  reaches  its  true  conclusion  only  in  this 
way. 

For  thus  we  behold,  after  all  the  division  and 
separation  in  these  four  Building  Gifts,  the 
return  to  the  starting  point,  the  Cube.  They 
form  a  cycle  of  derivation,  in  whose  chain  the  last 
link  reaches  around  and  connects  with  the  first. 
The  Cube  after  quite  a  line  of  derived  shapes, 
reproduces  itself,  and  therein  has  its  analogy  to 
the  vegetable  process  in  the  seed,  which  also 
separates  within  itself,  and  after  going  through 
many  forms  of  growth,  comes  back  to  itself  — 
the  seed  reproducing  the  seed.  Thus  the  circular 


148  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

movement  of  the  rectilineal  Gifts  rounds  itself 
out  to  completion,  and  in  a  way  suggests  the 
next  series,  the  curvilineal. 

We  shall  see  later  that  Froebel  in  his  Eighth 
Gift  (which  was  also  a  Brick  Gift),  may  have  in- 
troduced this  division,  and  so  made  the  return  to 
the  Cube,  the  original  genetic  shape,  which  re- 
turn is  now  wanting  in  the  Sixth  Gift.  Of  course, 
nothing  of  the  sort  is  known.  But  we  can  easily 
make  the  return  through  the  Sixth  Gift  and  thus 
complete  psychically  this  rectilineal  series. 

And  here  we  shall  offer  a  suggestion  corre- 
sponding to  the  one  in  the  Fifth  Gift  —  let  us 
have  two  sizes  of  the  Sixth  Gift,  one  small  and 
one  large.  The  cubic  foot  will  be  best  adapted 
for  the  large  size.  Then  the  small  Cube  will  be 
two  inches  square;  that  is,  it  will  be  just  the 
same  in  form  and  size  as  the  two-inch  Cube  of 
the  Third  Gift,  with  which  the  rectilineal  series 
started.  The  kindergardner  will  call  the  atten- 
tion of  the  child  to  this  fact,  taking  out  the  Third 
Gift,  and  he  will  at  once  make  the  nexus  between 
end  and  beginning.  Then  she  can  show  him  the 
whole  line  of  derivation  running  through  these 
Building  Gifts,  whereby  he  will  get  his  most 
valuable  lesson,  that  of  inner  genetic  connection 
in  the  great  order  of  things. 

The  advantages  of  a  large-sized  Gift  have 
already  been  touched  upon:  the  value  of  the 
cubic  foot  as  a  measure  to  which  the  eye  ought 


FKOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SIXTH.      149 

to  be  trained ;  in  social  combination  for  building 
or  in  the  so-called  group-work  of  children  the 
larger  size  is  doubtless  better ;  then  the  larger 
child  feels  the  inner  correspondence  when  he 
deals  with  larger  things.  The  argument  cited 
from  the  physiological  psychologists  who  affirm 
the  later  development  of  the  small  muscles  and 
hence  insist  upon  the  necessity  of  larger  blocks  / 
than  the  usual  ones,  may  be  here  omitted  as  of 
doubtful  application.  The  chief  ground  is  the 
educative  one,  which  rests  upon  the  psychical 
movement  unfolded  in  the  Building  Gifts,  and 
incorporated  in  them  to  the  vision  of  the  child, 
who  is  to  play  his  inner  self  outwards  in  playing 
the  process  which  moves  through  and  holds 
together  these  blocks. 

Thus  the  Sixth  Gift,  if  the  preceding  division 
be  carried  out,  will  not  only  complete  itself,  but 
in  the  same  manner  will  complete  the  entire 
rectilineal  series.  In  the  final  Cube,  the  Sixth 
Gift  comes  back  to  its  own  beginning,  which  is 
the  beginning  of  the  Third  Gift,  this  being  the 
starting-point  of  the  series.  The  Sixth  Gift  as 
the  last  stage,  has  to  bring  out  this  element  of 
return  both  within  itself  and  within  the  totality  of 
Building  Gifts,  of  which  it  is  a  member. 

In  this  way  we  catch  a  view  of  the  entire 
sweep  of  the  present  series  in  its  inner,  psychi- 
cal process.  The  first  stage  is  the  Third  Gift, 
which  is  simple  derivation  by  means  of  division, 


150  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

which,  however,  produces  no  difference  of  form. 
The  second  stage  introduces  difference  of  form 
in  a  number  of  ways,  which  are  seen  in  the 
Fourth  and  Fifth  Gifts,  with  their  quadrangular 
and  triangular  shapes.  Thus  difference  passes 
from  size  into  form.  The  third  step  is  the  Sixth 
Gift,  which,  producing  the  plinth  and  the  pillar 
(as  vertical)  and  the  cross-beam  (as  horizontal ) 
returns  into  its  origin  in  the  final  division, 
returns  into  the  beginning  of  the  series,  which  is 
the  Cube. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SIXTH.      151 


OBSERVATIONS    ON   THE    PRECEDING    GIFTS. 

1.  They  can  be  combined  in  many  suggestive 
ways.     One    of    the   most   fruitful   is   that    of 
co-operation  in   building.     Several   little    hands 
can  be  employed  in  rearing  one  structure,  which 
may  be  made  of  .the  materials  of  one  Gift  or 
more.     Thus  the  social  principle  is  cultivated. 

A  higher  form  of  associated  play  is  when  the 
children  unite  and  build  the  town  with  its  public 
buildings  —  courthouse,  church,  .market-place, 
public  square  surrounded  by  edifices.  Then  the 
private  houses  are  gathered  around  this  center, 
where  are  the  mentioned  institutional  buildings, 
and  among  them  the  schoolhouse.  A  little 
society  of  children  is  thus  building  the  home  of 
a  society,  repeating  in  small  what  their  fathers 
have  done  before  them  and  anticipating  in  play 
what  they  are  to  do  hereafter  themselves. 

2.  The  child  is  also  to  have  his  practice  in  free 
building.     When  he  has  learned  the   use  of  the 
blocks  and  acquired  certain  forms  of  construction, 
he  may  be  at  times  left  free  to  carry  out  his  own 
plans  in  his  own  way.     But  it  is  a  great  educative 
mistake  to    expect  him  to  build  at  once.     Let 
him  handle  the  blocks  and  play  with  them  a  little 


152  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

at  the  start,  till  he  makes  their  outside  acquaint- 
ance. Then  must  come  ordered  building  which 
has  to  be  prescribed  in  the  beginning,  and  has  to 
be  continued  till  he  makes  the  inside  acquaintance 
with  his  constructive  materials.  To  ask  the 
child  to  use  at  once  these  geometric  forms  in 
building,  is  to  ask  him  to  do  on  the  spot  what  it 
has  taken  his  race  thousands  of  years  to  accom- 
plish. He  will  soon  grow  weary  of  the  blocks, 
because  he  has  in  his  mind  no  structural  content 
by  which  to  order  them ;  they  are  a  chaos  just  as 
he  is  a  chaos.  But  when  he  has  acquired  a 
certain  constructive  mastery  of  his  material, 
when  he  has,  so  to  speak,  learned  his  trade,  then 
he  can  build  almost  any  kind  of  a  home,  and  will 
busy  himself  for  hours  in  making  plans  and 
carrying  them  out. 

The  truth  is,  when  the  blocks  are  given  him 
without  any  previous  constructive  training,  and 
he  is  allowed  to  build  with  them,  that  is  not  free 
building  at  all,  for  he  has  no  choice  between 
caprice  and  order.  He  has  to  follow  his  caprice, 
since  he  has  learned  no  order.  He  cannot  exer- 
cise his  inventive  genius  (as  some  say),  because 
he  has  no  true  knowledge  of  the  material  with 
which  he  deals.  He  cannot  realize  his  native 
bent  unless  he  have  some  outer  mastery  of  the 
thing  which  he  is  going  to  inform  with  him- 
self. Free  building  can  only  come  after  he 
has  learned  something  of  the  inner  nature  of  his 


FEOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SIXTH.      153 

blocks.  An  architect  cannot  express  himself  in 
his  art  till  he  knows  how  to  manipulate  its  forms. 

So  there  should  be  free  building,  but  in  the 
right  place  and  at  the  right  time.  Nay,  there 
should  be  free  association  in  building  among  the 
children  of  the  kindergarden,  when  they  reach 
the  fitting  age  and  have  had  the  proper  expe- 
rience. If  left  to  themselves  children  show  a 
tendency  tp  free  association ;  boys  will  associate 
together  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  cave  in  the 
hill,  or  a  dam  over  the  brook.  On  the  whole,  the 
larger  blocks  seem  best  adapted  for  such  asso- 
ciative plays. 

3.  It  is  sometimes  objected  that  the  Building 
Gifts  have  too  much  mathematics.  Undoubtedly 
they  do  show  form  and  number,  or  geometry 
and  arithmetic,  giving  the  primary  concepts  of 
the  latter.  But  this  is  really  their  great  educa- 
tive value.  The  first  rise  of  the  child  out  of  the 
sensuous  world  into  that  of  mind  is  through  the 
quantitative  process.  When  he  can  say  of  two 
objects  that  they  are  of  the  same  size  but  of  a 
different  form,  or  that  they  are  of  the  same  form 
but  of  a  different  size,  he  has  begun  to  compare, 
order,  and  measure  the  material  universe.  When 
he  can  count  one,  two,  three,  he  has  begun  to 
make  an  abstraction  from  the  whole  sensuous 
world,  and  name  the  act  as  ideal  or  mental.  All 
scholastic  discipline  begins  with  mathematics, 
which  word  means  (in  Greek)  primarily  things 


154  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

learned  as  distinct  from  other  things  given  by 
the  senses. 

In  this  connection  we  have  always  to  recall 
ancient  Pythagoras,  probably  the  father  of  peda- 
gogy and  the  first  actual  schoolmaster  in  the 
Occident,  with  his  love  of  mathematics  —  geome- 
try and  arithmetic  —  and  the  divine  meaning 
which  he  put  into  this  science.  What  the  old 
Greek  did  for  grown-up  children  2500  years  ago, 
Froebel  is  doing  for  little  children  now.  So  far 
indeed  do  we  seem  to  have  progressed. 

It  may  also  be  well  to  note  here  that  the 
thought  of  Pythagoras  is  the  infantile  thought 
of  the  race  in  its  first  attempts  to  conceive  the 
essence  of  things.  'Says  Aristotle  (Met.  I.  5): 
The  fundamental  idea  of  Pythagoras  is  "  that 
number  is  the  essence  of  all  things,  and  that  the 
universe  is  organized  in  its  manifold  determina- 
tions by  a  system  of  numbers  and  their  rela- 
tions." Such  is  the  beginning  of  thinking, 
which  seeks  to  account  for  the  sensible  universe 
by  a  supersensible  principle,  here  the  mathemati- 
cal. The  school  still  holds  to  this  curriculum  of 
old  Pythagoras,  and  the  school-boy  of  to-day 
gets  his  first  lessons  in  abstract  thought  by 
means  of  numbers.  For  arithmetic  is  not  only 
useful  in  commerce,  but  its  deepest  value  lies  in 
its  being  the  primary  discipline  in  human  culture. 

Moreover,  one  of  the  ten  pairs  of  opposite^ 
which  Pythagoras  (or  the  Pythagoreans)  adopted 


FKOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  — THE  SIXTH.      155 

as  embracing  all  things  was  just  the  two  geomet- 
ric forms  which  Froebel  has  employed  in  these 
four  Gifts,  namely  the  cube  and  the  oblong.  It 
is  strange  how  this  oldest  educator,  starting  to 
train  the  infantile  race,  is  re-incarnated  in  the 
newest  educator,  starting  to  train  the  infant  of 
the  present  time.  Truly  the  race-soul  and  the 
child-soul  have  been  unfolded  and  are  to  be 
unfolded  on  the  same  lines.  To  each  form,  the 
cube  and  the  oblong,  Froebel  devoted  two  Gifts, 
and  he  intended  to  devote  one  more  Gift  to  each 
(the  Seventh  and  the  Eighth).  So  the  ancient 
Greek  educator  and  the  modern  German  educator 
join  hands  across  the  chasm  of  centuries,  both  of 
them  trainers  of  the  infantile  spirit  by  similar 
methods. 

While  we  are  dealing  with  this  subject,  we  may 
expand  a  little  another  allusion  in  the  preceding 
remarks,  that  concerning  opposites  or  contraries. 
Nothing  is  better  known  in  Froebel  than  his  law  of 
opposites  and  their  reconciliation.  The  thought 
is  old  Greek,  we  may  say,  infantile  Greek.  We 
catch  the  first  note  of  it  in  Anaximander  of 
Miletus  (570-520,  B.  C.),  who  had  pairs  of 
physical  contraries,  as  Pleat  and  Cold,  Moist  and 
Dry,  etc.  Pythagoras  had  among  his  ten  pairs, 
physical,  mathematical,  and  ethical  opposites, 
culminating  in  the  opposition  of  Good  and  Evil. 
Heraclitus  employed  the  same  thought  in  his 
philosophy,  and  it  reappears  in  Plato.  In  fact, 


156  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Aristotle,  the  chief  voucher  for  these  early  Greek 
thinkers,  says  (Met.  III.  2)  that  "  they  nearly 
all  agree  that  the  essence  and  the  reality  of 
things  are  made  up  of  opposites,"  and  that  the 
chief  doctrine  which  you  can  extract  from  them 
is  that  "  the  beginnings  of  existence  are  in 
contraries." 

We  hold  that  it  was  Froebel's  greatness  as 
well  his  power  that  in  his  most  mature  work  he 
was  still  an  infant,  that  he  as  a  man  remained  a 
child  and  never  "put  away  childish  things," 
namely,  the  playthings  of  children,  which  he 
transformed  into  the  first  means  of  human  de- 
velopment. Thus  he  could  and  did  bridge  the 
abyss  between  the  race-soul  and  the  child-soul, 
opening  the  spiritual  treasure-house  of  mankind 
to  the  little  ones,  who  can  now  enter  there 
through  the  simplest  and  most  immediate  act  of 
their  nature,  through  play. 

Still  Froebel's  thought  is,  in  essence,  infantile, 
and  is  seen  to  be  so  through  its  correspondence 
to  the  infantile  thought  of  the  race  when  phi- 
losophy began  to  bud  in  that  old  Greek  epoch. 
On  many  sides  it  has  the  characteristics  of 
infancy,  nay,  it  has  to  be  so  in  order  to  perform 
its  functions  in  the  world.  Whereof  a  good 
example  is  found  in  Froebel's  law  of  opposites, 
which  really  belongs  to  the  first  stage  of  philo- 
sophic thinking,  to  the  childhood  of  philosophy. 

4.  We  can  trace  certain  architectural  elements 


FROEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SIXTH.     157 

presented  in  a  kind  of  structural  succession  in 
these  four  Building  Gifts. 

The  Third  Gift  shows  the  primary  form  of  the 
body  of  the  house  (without  the  sloping  roof), 
which  is  cubical  or  cuboidal.  The  same  material 
will  inclose  more  space  in  the  shape  of  a  square 
(or  Cube)  than  in  any  other  form.  This  fact 
can  easily  be  shown  with  the  Bricks  of  the 
Fourth  Gift.  Then  the  division  of  the  Cube  in 
the  Third  Gift  is  a  sort  of  archetype  of  the  divis- 
ion into  rooms  of  the  two-story  dwelling-house 
of  man.  So  the  Third  Gift  is  a  minute  fore- 
shadowing of  man  organizing  his  home,  and 
advancing  from  a  one-roomed  hut  to  an 
eight-roomed  abode. 

The  Fourth  Gift  suggests  the  inclosure  of  the 
building  —  its  wall  made  of  oblong  stones,  bricks, 
or  pieces  of  wood.  And  the  form  of  the  house 
will  pass  from  the  square  to  the  oblong  or  paral- 
lelogram, as  having  more  beauty,  or  as  being  a 
more  adequate  representative  of  the  Ego,  since 
this  form  has  difference  within  itself,  the  three 
dimensions  being  different.  Still  the  Cube  is  the 
more  immediate,  utilitarian  figure,  since  it  holds 
more  room  in  the  same  quantity  of  material  than 
any  other  figure.  The  most  perfect  structure  in 
the  world,  the  Greek  temple,  presents  to  the 
vision  almost  everywhere  the  parallelogram. 

The  Fifth  Gift  adds  triangularity  to  the  build- 
ing principle,  and  is  most  prominently  seen  in 


158  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP 

the  roof  with  its  gable.  In  the  Greek  temples 
the  triangle  is  distinctively  the  pediment,  the 
chief  place  for  sculpturesque  figures,  which  indi- 
cate the  transition  from  the  architectural  or 
geometric  forms  to  the  plastic.  By  its  shape  the 
triangle  suggests  a  rise,  culmination,  and  end; 
thus  the  artistic  eye  of  the  ancient  Greek  took  it 
as  the  hintful  frame  of  a  dramatic  action  repre- 
sented in  statuary. 

The  Sixth  Gift  adds  the  post  and  the  beam  in 
one  shape,  or  the  pillar  and  the  architrave,  as 
well  as  the  plinth  under  the  pillar  as  a  foundation. 
This  is,  accordingly,  the  architectural  Gift  above 
all  others ;  it  shows  the  inclosure  in  its  Bricks  and 
the  entrance  into  the  inclosure,  guarded  and 
surrounded  by  the  pillar  and  beam;  the  door 
and  the  window  can  now  be  inserted  in  the  wall 
with  their  own  forms. 

Thus  the  Building  Gifts  may  be  made  to  reveal 
the  evolution  of  the  house  of  man  till  it  rises  into 
the  temple  of  his  God. 

5.  Froebel  himself  has,  in  an  oft-cited  passage, 
pointed  out  the  analogy  of  the  Second  (or  Origi- 
native) Gift  with  its  Ball,  Cube,  and  Cylinder,  to 
the  column  of  Greek  architecture  with  its  base 
(Cube),  its  shaft  (Cylinder),  and  its  capital 
(Ball  or  head).  So  the  Second  Gift,  too,  in  its 
way  shows  its  architectural  kinship,  though  its 
three  parts,  superposed  in  the  right  order,  have 
also  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  the  human 


FROE  BEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SIXTH.      159 

form.  Indeed,  the  Greek  column  suggests  the 
same  resemblance,  being  a  statuesque  burden- 
bearer  of  the  architrave  above.  The  classic 
bent  is  pronounced  throughout  all  these  Build- 
ing Gifts. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  Froebel  at  one 
period  of  his  life  devoted  himself  to  architecture, 
intending  to  make  it  his  profession.     Already  at 
the  University  of  Jena  it  was  one  of  his  courses. 
He  went  to  Frankfort  for  the  purpose  of  study- 
ing it  further,  when  he  was  persuaded  to  give  it 
up  for  the  vocation  of  the  teacher  by  Dr.  Gruner. 
This  was  in  1805.     Thus  for  six  years  or  more 
he  had  in  mind  an  architectural  calling,  and  he 
carried  his  interest  in  building  over  into  his  school. 
Moreover  Froebel  lived  in  the  time  of  what  may 
be  called  the  Greco-German  Renascence  of  the 
present  century,  whose  greatest  exponent  was  the 
poet  Goethe.     The  study  of  Greek  antiquity  had  a 
new  birth  in  quite  every  department  of  ancient  art 
and  culture.    Architecture  shared  in  the  awaking, 
and  its  chief  representative  was  Schinkel,  whose 
works  were  starting  in  Berlin  during  Froebel' s 
stay  in  that  city.     Stuart  and  Revett  had  gone  to 
Athens  in  the  latter  part  of  the  preceding  cen- 
tury, had  drawn  and  measured  the   Parthenon 
and   the   Greek   temples.     The  results  of  their 
labors  began  after  some  years  to  appear  in   a 
great  revival  of  the  classic  style  of  architecture, 
especially  in  Germany. 


160  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

In  the  midst  of  this  revival  Froebel  lived  and 
at  one  time  thought  of  becoming  an  architect. 
We  may  well  see  in  these  Gifts  a  tendency  of  the 
time,  as  well  as  an  individual  bent,  since  they 
lend  themselves  predominantly  to  classic  forms, 
which  are  mainly  rectilineal.  It  is  a  curious  fact 
that  a  window  which  Froebel  calls  Gothic  (repro- 
duced in  Seidel's  edition  of  Froebel's  writings, 
II.,  p.  263)  is  not  Gothic  at  all,  but  Greco- 
Roman,  having  in  it  no  sign  of  a  curve. 

When  Froebel  passed  through  Southern  Ger- 
many on  his  way  to  and  from  Switzerland  in 
the  Thirties,  he  must  have  again  felt  the  breath 
of  the  classic  revival,  which  at  that  time  dom- 
inated the  Bavarian  capital  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  architect  Leo  Von  Klenze,  who 
reproduced  there  the  Propylaea  of  the  Athenian 
Acropolis,  and  other  classic  structures.  In  those 
days  a  Bavarian  prince,  Otho,  had  been  called  to 
reign  over  the  new  Hellenic  nation,  which  had 
also  a  new  birth  after  hundreds  of  years  of 
enslavement.  The  Teuton  had  wooed  and  mar- 
ried the  Greek,  symbolized  by  the  poet  Goethe 
during  this  epoch  in  the  Second  Part  of  his 
greatest  poem  by  the  marriage  of  Faust  and 
Helen.  Froebel,  too,  participated  in  the  spirit 
of  the  time,  which  his  genius  impelled  him  to 
introduce  into  education,  yes,  into  the  education 
of  the  little  child  playing  with  building  blocks. 
As  the  two  world-educators,  Froebel  and  Pytha- 


FROEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.  161 

goras,  the  modern  German  and  the  ancient 
Greek,  seein  to  be  shaking  hands  across  the 
abysm  of  time,  so  the  two  world-poets,  Goethe 
and  Homer,  the  first  and  last  of  their  exalted 
degree,  reveal  their  brotherhood  in  many  a 
kindred  touch  of  myth  and  song,  notably  in  the 
tale  of  Helen.  Yet  how  different  are  these  two 
modern  men,  the  educator  and  the  poet,  both 
contemporaries,  both  sprung  of  the  same  people, 
both  the  sons  of  the  same  mighty  spiritual 
movement  of  the  age !  The  one  of  lofty  station, 
conscious,  purposeful,  the  master  of  all  culture, 
intending  through  his  art  to  reincarnate  his  elder 
Greek  brother  —  that  was  the  poet.  The  other 
of  humble  life,  unconscious,,  instinctively  repro- 
ducing the  soul  of  the  race  like  a  child  for  the 
child  —  that  was  the  educator. 

FroebeVs  Seventh  and  Eighth  Gifts.  These 
are  not  the  present  Seventh  and  Eighth  Gifts  of 
the  kindergarden  (tablets  and  sticks),  but  Gifts 
which  Froebel  had  thought  upon  and  numbered, 
yet  never  completed.  The  Seventh  Gift  was  to 
be  a  continuation  of  the  Third  and  Fifth,  starting 
from  a  new  division  of  the  Cube  into  sixty-four 
pieces.  The  Eighth  Gift  was  to  be  a  continua- 
tion of  the  Fourth  and  Sixth  Gifts,  starting 
from  a  new  division  of  the  Cube  into  Bricks. 
Thus  the  two  additional  Gifts  belong  to  the 
rectilinear  series  of  Concrete  Magnitudes ;  as  far 

11 


162  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

as  known,  they  make  no  transition  into  the 
curvilineal.  Somehow  Froebel's  spirit  was  caught 
in  those  geometric  right  lines  and  could  not 
extricate  itself. 

We  also  note  how  Froebel  (at  the  time  of  the 
Epistolary  /Statement,  from  which  these  facts  are 
drawn)  conceived  his  solid  Gifts.  He  indicates 
four  series : — 

First  series  is  the  Ball,  or  the  First  Gift  in  its 
manifold  application. 

Second  series  is  the  Ball,  Cube,  and  Cylinder, 
or  the  Second  Gift. 

Third  series  is  made  up  of  the  cubical  Gifts  — 
Third,  Fifth,  Seventh. 

Fourth  series  takes  the  Brick  as  the  starting 
point  of  three  Gifts  —  Fourth,  Sixth,  Eighth. 

The  idea  of  the  series  (JReihe)  will  be  taken 
up  by  Froebel  and  applied  to  the  tablets  which 
follow  the  solid  Gifts. 

In  this  account  there  seems  to  hover  before 
Froebel's  mind,  though  rather  indistinctly,  three 
kinds  of  division  which  he  applies  to  his  Gifts 
generally.  They  separate,  first,  into  large  sec- 
tions (sometimes  he  calls  each  of  these  a  play- 
whole,  Spielganzes) ;  then  these  sections  he 
sub-divides  into  series ;  finally  each  of  these 
series  is  composed  of  a  certain  number  of  play- 
gifts.  The  play -gift  is  the  unit  of  the  system. 

Such  was  Froebel's  most  complete  attempt  to 
organize  the  ever-accumulating  materials  of  his 


FBOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  163 

Gifts.  The  document  from  which  the  above  is 
taken  bears  no  date  in  Lange's  edition  (a  grave 
oversight  on  the  part  of  Lange),  but  probably 
belongs  somewhere  in  the  middle  of  the  Forties. 
(See  the  document  in  Lange  II.  s.  559.  Trans- 
lated by  Miss  Jarvis,  "  Education  by  Develop- 
ment," p.  306.) 

Still  Froebel  does  not  unfold  these  divisions 
into  anything  like  a  complete  system,  nor  does  he 
give  grounds  for  his  distinctions,  at  least  not  with 
any  degree  of  fullness.  It  is  manifest,  however, 
that  he  intended  a  triple  set  of  Gifts  for  each  of 
the  forms,  the  Cube  and  the  Brick.  We  may 
also  suppose  that  there  hovered  before  his 
mind  a  threefold  movement  in  each  case. 

It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  the  Seventh 
and  Eighth  Gifts,  as  above  conceived,  lie  outside 
of  the  kindergarden.  Even  the  Fifth  and  the 
Sixth  Gifts  cannot  be  finished  in  the  kinder- 
garden,  but  must  be  carried  over  into  the  primary 
grades,  according  to  the  opinion  of  the  best 
kindergardners . 

We  can  see  that  the  first  set  of  two  Gifts 
(Third  and  Fourth)  take  up  the  Cube  and  the 
Brick  in  the  simple  or  primary  division,  and  thus 
show  an  immediate  stage ;  then  comes  the  second 
set  of  the  same  forms  (Fifth  and  Sixth  Gifts) 
which  introduce  a  secondary  and  more  complex 
division,  calling  forth  many  new  combinations; 
finally  is  the  third  set  of  the  same  forms  (the 


164  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

projected  Seventh  and  Eighth  Gifts)  which  gave 
still  more  complicated  geometrical  figures,  and 
probably  introduced  crystallization. 

In  the  above  cited  document  Froebel  gives  a 
few  hints  concerning  his  Seventh  Gift,  but  dis- 
misses curtly  his  Eighth  Gift.  In  the  latter 
Guillaume  has  conjectured  that  there  must  have 
been  a  diagonal  division  of  the  Brick  in  order  to 
get  the  right  scalene  triangle  of  the  tablets.  We 
would  also  like  to  hazard  the  suggestion  that  the 
Eighth  Gift  ended  in  a  division  which  produced 
the  Cube,  and  thus  brought  about  a  return  to  the 
beginning  of  the  series.  Of  course  there  is  no 
positive  ground  for  any  such  conjecture,  and  this 
return  can  also  be  made  from  the  present  Sixth 
Gift,  as  we  have  already  indicated  in  treating  of 
the  same. 

As  supplementary  to  the  preceding  view  of 
Froebel,  we  may  introduce  some  statements  from 
another  document  of  his,  the  letter  to  Emma 
Bothrnann,  dated  May  25th,  1852  (Lange,  II. 
509;  Jarvis,  II.  283),  written  not  long  before 
his  death.  Here  he  unfolds  his  use  of  the  four- 
teen solids  or  crystal  forms,  deducing  them  from 
the  Cube  of  the  Second  Gift.  But  these  he  will 
employ  not  so  much  in  the  kindergarden  as  in  the 
connecting  class,  which  is  the  bridge  over  the 
grand  chasm  between  the  kindergarden  and  the 
primary  grades  of  the  school  proper  —  which  is 
still  a  problem. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.  165 

Now  it  becomes  manifest  in  comparison  that 
the  Seventh  Gift  of  the  previous  (undated)  letter 
has  become  the  fourteen  Solids  of  the  present 
(dated)  letter.  In  each  case  Froebel  goes  back 
to  the  Cube  and  develops  his  forms  out  of  it,  so 
that  these  (polyhedrons  of  various  kinds,  octo- 
hedrons,  dodecahedrons)  seem  to  spring  from  the 
Cube  as  from  their  creative  germ.  It  is  true  that 
the  manner  of  derivation  appears  somewhat  dif- 
ferent in  each  case,  though  the  procedure  of  the 
Seventh  Gift  is  not  distinctly  told  in  any  detail. 

We  may  conclude  from  a  comparison  of  these 
two  letters  of  Froebel,  which  are  several  years 
apart,  that  he  abandoned  the  Seventh  Gift  as  a 
part  of  the  kindergarden  course,  and  transferred 
it  with  some  changes  doubtless,  into  the  con- 
necting class,  where  it  appears  in  his  last 
word  upon  the  subject.  Kohler  thinks  that 
these  fourteen  solids  have  still  a  future  in  the 
Public  School;  this  may  be  so,  but  a  discus- 
sion of  the  subject  lies  outside  the  horizon  of  the 
present  book.  It  is  important,  however,  for  the 
student  to  keep  in  mind  the  difference  in  time  as 
well  as  in  development  of  Froebel' s  thought 
between  the  two  above  mentioned  documents,  as 
Guillaume  has  somewhat  confused  them  in  the 
only  presentation  (see  his  statement  in  Barnard's 
volume  on  Kindergarden  and  Child  Culture) 
which  has  been  hitherto  accessible  to  the  English- 
speaking  world. 


166  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

In  this  connection  we  may  cite  a  passage  in 
which  Froebel  speaks  of  his  work,  taken  from 
the  Baroness  Marenholtz  von  Billow's  Erinner- 
ungen  an  F.  Froebel,  s.  149 :  "  Their  simplicity 
alone  makes  the  Building  Gifts  adapted  to  the 
instruction  of  children.  I  myself  once  intended  to 
continue  the  regular  (gesetzlich)  division  of  them 
still  further,  but  I  had  to  recognize  this  as  a  mis- 
take. Further  division  makes  the  regular  pro- 
cedure impossible  "  (see  the  passage  in  Mrs. 
Mann's  translation  of  the  Reminiscences  of 
Froebel,  p.  230). 

This  open  confession  of  a  mistake  which  Froe- 
bel here  makes,  refers,  in  our  opinion,  to  the 
Seventh  and  Eighth  Gifts.  Spoken  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Building  Gifts,  it  indicates  the 
change  in  Froebel's  mind,  which  we  have  above 
indicated.  The  date  suggests  the  same  fact,  as 
the  reported  conversation  took  place  in  1851,  the 
year  before  Froebel's  death. 

We  shall  continue  the  citation  of  the  above 
passage,  as  it  contains  some  of  Froebel's  latest 
ideas  about  the  Building  Gifts :  ' '  For  further 
diversification  of  material  we  can  use  together  the 
four  Building  Gifts.  The  straight  line  must  be 
still  retained  in  the  division.  The  older  pupils 
can  diversify  the  material  according  to  their 
needs  by  their  own  invention,  though  this  ceases 
to  be  a  methodical  means  of  instruction." 

Thus  Froebel  had  the  conception  of  free  build- 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  167 

ing,  which  is  claimed  for  these  times  of  ours. 
Yet  it  was  to  come  after  instruction  or  prescribed 
building,  not  before — which  is  the  right  way. 
But  how  tenaciously  he  clings  to  his  straight  line ! 

Still  more  from  the  same  passage:  "It  is, 
however,  permissible  to  offer  to  the  more 
advanced  pupil  building-blocks  which  represent 
the  different  styles  of  architecture  of  peoples  and 
of  ages,  but  that  does  not  belong  in  my  kinder- 
garden,  which  can  only  use  what  is  elementary." 
To  our  mind  this  last  expression  is  but  another 
indication  how  completely  even  simple  curvilineal 
forms  lay  outside  of  Froebel's  horizon.  The 
Ball  and  Cylinder  were  quite  enough  for  him  in 
the  matter  of  curves. 

Still  we  must  note  with  interest  that  he  refused 
to  crystallographize  his  kindergarden  through  the 
Seventh  and  Eighth  Gifts ,  and  of  his  own  accord 
left  them  out  of  his  system,  acknowledging  his 
mistake. 

Again  the  reflection  is  forced  upon  us  that 
Froebel's  Gifts  were  not  complete  at  the  start, 
but  were  a  great  development  extending  through 
many  years,  especially  of  the  later  portion  of  his 
life  and  we  must  further  see  that  they  were  not 
left  in  a  state  of  completion  by  the  author  him- 
self, who  was  unfolding  them  in  various  direc- 
tions at  the  time  of  his  death.  Still  the  main 
lines  of  his  Gifts  are  laid  down  in  all  distinctness, 
and  are  to  be  wrought  out  to  their  true  results 


168  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

by  those  who  wish  to  develop  his  system  in  accord 
with  its  spirit. 

In  fact  Froebel's  entire  life  was  a  genetic 
development  from  its  beginning,  and  this  inner 
nature  of  himself  he  projected  into  his  kinder- 
garden.  His  biography  is  to  be  conceived  as 
genetic  and  thus  it  becomes  the  best  commentary 
on  his  works.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  swallow 
everything  that  Froebel  has  written  without  ask- 
ing where  the  given  statement  belongs  in  his 
development. 

And  now  we  proceed  to  outline  briefly  an 
account  of  that  portion  of  Froebel's  Gifts  which 
he  never  completed  and  which  he  apparently  was 
unable  to  complete  through  force  of  nature,  but 
which  the  kindergarden  organism,  unfolding  and 
working  in  his  spirit,  has  to  complete  in  the  right 
movement  of  its  growth. 

2.  Curvilineal  Series.  This  corresponds  to  the 
rectilineal  series  previously  considered  and  is  the 
second  head  under  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magni- 
tude. It  is  the  separative  stage  in  contrast  with 
the  straight  line  which  is  the  immediate  going 
forward  of  the  point  into  the  line,  whereas 
the  curve  shows  the  line  changing  direction  at 
every  point.  Thus  the  curvilineal  introduces 
separation  into  the  rectilineal  at  every  possible 
turn,  yet  this  separative  act  is  continuous  in  a 
line.  The  result  is  curvature. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.  169 

Still  further,  the  central  point  was  one  with 
the  line  in  the  rectilineal,  but  in  the  curvilineal  it 
becomes  separated  and  begins  to  take  its  own 
independent  position.  The  curve  projects  its 
central  point,  from  which  in  reality  it  is 
determined. 

Thus  the  central  point  is  being  separated  and 
becoming  explicit  in  the  curve,  while  in  the 
straight  line  it  was  in  immediate,  unseparated 
unity  with  the  line.  Here  we  have  a  foreshad- 
owing of  two  elements  of  Abstract  Magnitude  — 
Point  and  Line  —  while  the  rectilineal  has  only 
one  of  these  elements — the  Line.  In  such 
fashion  we  see  the  twofold  nature  of  the  present 
sphere. 

This  curve  in  its  innermost  nature  is  a  return 
out  of  the  Cube  (the  derived)  toward  the  Sphere 
(the  original).  This  going  from  the  straight  to 
the  round  is  a  deepening  of  the  rectilineal  toward 
its  source,  a  kind  of  a  search  for  its  genetic 
fountain-head.  But  in  such  a  movement  the 
rectilineal  will  pass  through  an  infinitude  of 
shapes  on  its  way,  all  sorts  of  many-sided  figures 
with  division  moving  more  and  more  toward  the 
curve.  The  active  right  line,  as  a  thought,  goes 
on  and  on,  in  a  state  of  seeking  yet  never  attain- 
ing ;  it  reaches  out  toward  infinity,  yet  cannot  get 
back  to  itself,  and  so  be  complete  or  self- 
returning. 

But  when  the  rectilineal  begins  to  break  loose 


170  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

from  itself  and  turn  at  every  point,  and  also  to 
require  an  inner  determining  point,  we  see  a 
double  separation,  without  and  within,  by  which 
it  makes  the  transition  to  the  curvilineal. 

Language  recalls  and  perpetuates  the  spiritual 
analogy  between  these  two  kinds  of  lines,  which 
are  specially  applicable  to  all  sorts  of  conduct 
and  action.  We  may  say  that  the  right  line 
represents  justice  and  the  unswerving  law ;  the 
right  line  is  right  (rectum  and  recht).  The  right 
line  means  straightforwardness  in  English,  recti- 
tude in  Latin,  Grerechtigkeit  in  German.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  rectilineal  cultivates  as 
well  as  expresses  these  elements  of  character  in 
the  human  being.  Hence  it  has  its  place  in  edu- 
cation, and  specially  in  the  education  of  the 
child,  who  being  at  the  start  the  possibility  of  all 
lines,  must  be  straightened  out,  or  put  into  a 
straight  line  in  the  beginning  of  his  career. 

But  these  very  utterances  about  the  rectilineal 
as  educative  indicate  its  limitation,  and  there 
rises  the  inner  protest,  and  the  demand  for  the 
opposite.  The  curvilineal  has  yielding,  concilia- 
tion, forgiveness ;  it  has  mercy,  in  contrast  with 
the  unbending  justice  of  the  rectilineal.  The 
curve  bends,  relents,  turns  back,  repents;  it  is 
placable.  Achilles  in  his  wrath  was  rectilineal 
and  in  one  point  right ;  in  his  reconciliation  he 
was  curvilineal,  and  in  all  points  right.  To  be 
sure,  the  bending  or  curved  element  in  man's 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.  171 

nature  has  its  limitations  also,  sometimes  he 
must  not  yield.  Thus  he  must  have  both,  the 
rectilineal  and  the  curvilineal,  in  harmony. 

Human  speech  has  thus  seized  upon  these  two 
kinds  of  lines  to  express  conduct,  especially 
ethical  conduct.  And  as  external  objects,  they 
still  remain  educative.  In  the  Greek  world 
stoical  morality  was  rectilineal,  epicurean  curvi- 
lineal; both  in  the  end  were  carried  to  excess. 
The  Ethics  of  Kant  are  more  rectilineal,  often 
too  much  so,  the  Ethics  of  Bentham  more  curvi- 
lineal, often  too  much  so.  It  may  be  said  that 
Northern  Europe,  the  Teutonic  peoples,  have  in 
general  a  tendency  toward  the  rectilineal  in  man- 
ners, art,  literature,  morals,  and  perchance  relig- 
ion. On  the  other  hand  Southern  Europe  of  to- 
day, the  Romanic  peoples,  have  a  decided  leaning 
toward  the  curvilineal,  which  shows  itself  in  their 
outer  behavior  as  well  as  in  their  spiritual  produc- 
tions. Froebel  himself  was  distinguished  for  his 
directness  (  Gfradheit,  straightness),  and  his  spirit 
was  more  rectilineal  than  curvilineal.  This  in- 
nate bent  was  cultivated  by  his  study  of 
crystallography,  which  shows  nature  in  her 
rectilineal  mood,  shooting  into  right  lines,  and 
also  by  his  study  of  architecture,  which  in  his 
time  was  mainly  that  of  the  Greco-German 
renascence,  and  largely  rectilineal.  Of  course 
his  mathematical  studies,  surveying,  geometry, 
etc.,  helped  along  in  the  same  direction.  Thus 


172  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

we  may  see  why  his  Gifts  are  so  dominantly 
rectilineal. 

Accordingly  we  hold  that  these  two  kinds  of 
lines,  furnishing  as  they  do  the  staple  of  human 
speech  in  regard  to  matters  right  and  wrong, 
and  having  their  analogy  not  only  to  the  moral 
but  also  to  the  intellectual  nature  of  man,  are 
deeply  educative;  nay  they  have  helped  to 
educate  the  human  race,  and  must  still  help  to 
educate  the  child,  who  has,  in  general,  to  travel 
the  same  road  of  discipline  that  his  species  has 
traveled.  He  gets  the  very  basis  of  all  moral 
distinctions  in  speech  from  the  line,  which  dis- 
tinctions are  re-created  by  the  child  in  play. 

And  now  we  have  to  grapple  with  the  astonish- 
ing fact  that  Froebel  has  almost  wholly  omitted 
from  his  Gifts  the  curvilineal,  and  put  all  his 
stress  upon  the  rectilineal.  To  such  an  omission 
there  can  be  at  last  but  one  response :  the  gap 
must  be  filled.  The  kindergarden  world  must 
work  toward  the  completion  of  the  kindergarden 
organism,  else  it  will  stop  growing,  and  that 
means  death.  The  main  reasons  why  there 
should  be  a  curvilineal  series  of  Gifts  in  corre- 
spondence with  the  rectilineal  series,  may  be  here 
touched  upon. 

(a.)  It  is  necessary  for  completeness  of  Deri- 
vation. The  Sphere  and  the  Cylinder,  though 
genetic  in  themselves  and  belonging  to  the  origi- 
native (Second)  Gift,  have  no  representatives 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  173 

among  the  Building  Gifts.  Here  lies  an  offense 
against  the  very  important  maxim  of  Froebel 
himself,  that  all  the  material  is  to  be  used  in  con- 
struction and  not  left  lying  around  in  a  loose  way. 
As  in  a  single  Gift,  so  in  the  totality  of  Gifts, 
no  fragments  should  be  left  unutilized.  More- 
over, if  one  piece  be  barren,  say  the  Cylinder, 
there  is  a  denial  of  the  very  principle  of  genetic 
development.  The  child  himself  will  feel  the 
gap,  and  show  a  vague  longing  for  completeness; 
sometimes  he  will  express  it  in  a  naive  word. 

(&.)  It  is  necessary  for  symmetry  in  the  total 
system  of  Gifts.  When  we  come  to  the  Surfaces 
and  Lines  in  Abstract  Magnitude,  which  must  be 
derived  from  forms  of  Concrete  Magnitude,  we 
shall  find  curvilineal  shapes  in  the  tablets  and  in 
the  rings;  whence  did  they  originate?  We  may 
refer  them  back  to  the  Cylinder,  but  the  inter- 
vening stage  has  dropped  out.  This  violates  the 
symmetry  of  the  Gifts. 

(c.)  It  is  necessary  on  artistic  grounds,  as  we 
shall  see  later.  Art  must  have  the  curvilineal; 
architecture,  the  most  rectilineal  of  all  the  Fine 
Arts,  cannot  do  without  the  arch  in  any  complete 
development  of  itself,  and  the  arch  is  curvilineal. 

(<7.)  It  is  necessary  to  ethical  proportion  in 
the  human  soul,  as  we  have  already  set  forth. 
There  can  be  an  excess  of  the  rectilineal  in  the 
conduct  of  life,  though  it  certainly  forms  an 
indispensable  part  thereof. 


174  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

(e.)  It  is  necessary  for  scientific  completeness, 
since  geometry  demands  curves  as  well  as  right 
lines,  and  certainly  nature  has  both.  Geometry, 
in  fact,  starts  with  the  rectilineal,  and  moves  into 
the  curvilineal  by  division  of  itself  till  it  quite 
reaches  the  Point.  That  movement  we  may 
follow  in  the  unfolding  of  these  Gifts. 

(/.)  But  the  main  thing,  the  thing  above  all 
other  things  is,  that  the  curvilineal  element  is 
necessary  for  the  educative  completeness  of 
the  training  of  the  child.  This  conclusion  fol- 
\  lows  from  the  statements  just  made.  Genetically 
incomplete,  artistically  incomplete,  morally  in- 
complete, scientifically  incomplete  —  are  any 
more  reasons  needed  for  this  new  curvilineal 
Gift  (or  Gifts)? 

Several  questions  now  rise  with  emphasis: 
How  shall  this  rectilineal  Gift  be  constructed? 
Of  what  pieces  shall  it  be  composed?  What 
forms  can  be  made  of  it  when  its  pieces  are  va- 
riously combined?  Let  it  be  said  here  that  the 
author  of  this  book  does  not  pretend  to  be  able 
to  answer  adequately  these  questions.  The  cur- 
vilineal Gift  (or  series)  remains  to  be  constructed 
by  some  skillful  kindergardner  who  is  able  to 
think  with  the  hand  like  Froebel  himself.  Such 
ability  lies  outside  of  the  sphere  of  the  present 
writer. 

Still  we  may  give  a  suggestion  or  two,  which, 
however,  will  have  to  be  confirmed  by  practice. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.  175 

The  main  addition  must  be  found  in  the  arch, 
one  of  the  basic  principles  of  architecture.  Here 
we  may  note  three  shapes  which  form  a  process 
together,  all  of  them  derived  from  the  Sphere  or 
more  directly  from  the  Cylinder  of  the  Second 
Gift. 

(1.)  The  most  immediate  derivation  from  the 
Cylinder  by  division  is  when  it  is  halved  and 
quartered  lengthwise,  with  a  cross  section  in  the 
middle.  Thus  the  three  planes  are  passed 
through  the  Cylinder  at  right  angles  to  one 
another  as  through  the  Sphere  and  the  Cube.  If 
the  division  into  eighths  be  made  (or  modeled 
in  clay),  these  small  slanting  pieces  will  suggest 
the  wedge-shaped  stones  of  the  arch,  technically 
called  voussoirs. 

Such  a  division  of  the  solid  Cylinder  shows 
the  arc,  the  half  and  quarter  circle  on  the  out- 
side, or  the  convex  principle  of  the  curve.  Next 
in  order,  then,  we  are  to  see  the  concave  princi- 
ple unfold  out  of  the  Cylinder.  But  this  de- 
mands a  different  division  of  the  Cylinder,  the 
concentric,  or  the  Cylinder  within  the  Cylinder, 
which  new  shape  (or  shapes)  will  be  divided  by 
the  three  intersecting  planes. 

( 2 . )  The  result  of  this  division  which  should 
be  performed  thrice  concentrically,  making  three 
hollow  Cylinders,  one  within  the  other,  will  be 
the  semi-circular  arch  of  three  sizes,  and  of  two 
different  lengths,  or  more,  according  to  the  cross 


176  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

cuts.     Also  there  will  be  the  quarter  arches,  or 
even  the  eighths. 

Thus  we  have  the  concave  and  the  convex 
principles  of  the  curvilineal  form,  as  it  is  seen 
outside  and  inside.  The  hollo wness  or  concavity 
of  the  arch  constitutes  its  great  importance ; 
beneath  it  flow  rivers,  while  over  it  go  roads, 
heavy  vehicles,  trains,  etc.  The  arch  is  perhaps 
the  most  useful  of  all  building  devices ;  it  will 
span  a  large  space,  and  bear  up  under  the  heavi- 
est burden  if  well  made.  The  child  should  build 
his  arch  in  the  kindergarden  and  learn  something 
of  its  character,  which  is  indeed  suggestive. 

(3.)  There  are  many  ways  of  uniting  the  pre- 
ceding forms.  The  convex  and  the  concave  form* 
alongside  of  each  other  in  succession  produce  the 
undulatory  series  of  curves,  a  line  which  is 
rhythmic  in  its  suggestion.  Many  decorative 
figures  can  be  brought  to  light  —  rosettes,  bor- 
ders, trefoils,  etc.  Then  these  curvilineal  forms, 
concave  and  convex,  can  be  united  with  the 
rectilineal  in  many  a  combination  suggesting 
architecture,  of  which  we  shall  speak  later. 

So  we  would  interweave  into  these  Gifts  as 
well  as  into  the  training  of  the  child  a  curvilineal 
element  to  counterbalance  the  one-sided  rectilin- 
eal element  of  the  preceding  four  Gifts  (Third  to 
Sixth  inclusive).  Already  the  Cylinder  of  the 
Second  Gift  is  such  a  union  of  the  round  and  the 
straight,  and  the  Greek  column  (soon  to  be  men- 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  177 

tinned)  shows  the  same  union  in  a  number  of 
ways. 

At  this  point  we  must  render  homage  to  the 
work  of  Hermann  Goldammer,  who,  of  all  the 
successors  of  Froebel,  seems  to  have  felt  most 
keenly  the  above-mentioned  defect  in  the  Gifts, 
and  to  have  made  the  most  earnest  beginning 
toward  its  correction.  Goldammer,  in  his  Kinder- 
garden  Manual  (Gifts,  p.  Ill)  has  given  us  the 
result  of  his  labor  in  what  he  calls  "  Gift  5  B," 
which  he  adds  as  a  kind  of  appendage  to  the 
Third  and  Fifth  Gifts.  He  also  declares  that  he 
has  tried  to  add  a  similar  appendage  to  the  Fourth 
and  Sixth  Gifts,  but  that,  after  much  effort,  he 
has  not  succeeded  to  his  own  satisfaction. 

We  think  that  Goldammer  has  made  a  very 
solid  contribution  to  the  Gifts  in  his  work,  but 
it  should  be  much  extended.  He  has  only  one 
kind  of  arch,  whereas  there  should  be  at  least 
three  different  sizes,  for  the  sake  of  variety  and 
contrast.  Thus  the  child  can  have  a  large  arch 
and  a  small  arch  in  his  structures,  one  for  his 
door  and  one  for  his  window,  and  still  another 
one,  whereby  he  can  produce  the  effect  of  magni- 
tude by  means  of  the  contrasting  sizes.  As 
already  stated,  these  various  kinds  of  arches  can 
be  derived  from  the  concentric  Cylinder.  The 
arch,  being  the  most  important  structural  element 
of  the  curvilineal,  or,  for  that  matter,  of  the 
whole  building  series,  deserves  to  be  quite  fully 

12 


178  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

developed  for  the  child,  even  though  the  time  of 
the  straight-lined  Gifts  be  somewhat  shortened. 

We  think,  too,  that  it  is  a  mistake  on  Gold- 
animer's  part  to  make  the  curvilineal  forms  a 
mere  appendage  to  the  rectilineal  Gifts.  We  are 
inclined  to  see  in  this  the  ground  of  his  failure  to 
proceed  in  his  task.  At  any  rate,  the  curvilineal 
principle  should  be  co-equal  with  the  rectilineal, 
and  still  further,  should  be  united  with  the  same 
in  the  total  process  of  the  Gifts  of  Concrete 
Magnitude,  of  which  it  is  the  second  stage. 
Thus  the  curved  form  becomes  an  integral  part 
of  the  entire  movement,  and  not  a  tail  tacked  on 
the  outside  of  something  else. 

Still  we  feel  we  must  render  due  honor  to 
Goldammer,  our  predecessor  in  this  suggested 
improvement,  who  actually  constructed  something 
for  its  furthering  —  a  merit  to  which  we  can  lay 
no  claim. 

There  are  a  few  scattered  hints  in  Froebel's 
writings,  showing  that  he  felt  the  need  of  this 
curvilineal  element  in  his  Gifts;  still,  when  he 
proposed  adding  two  more,  the  Seventh  and  the 
Eighth,  he  again  gave  way  to  his  rectilineal  bent, 
and  fell  back  once  more  upon  the  Cube  and  the 
Brick. 

3.  Unification  of  the  two  series.  The  curvilineal 
element  cannot  stay  alone ;  if  it  does,  it  runs  the 
danger  of  getting  crooked.  The  curve,  too, 
must  be  put  under  the  law,  the  right,  and  the 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  179 

right-lined;  capricious  crookedness  is  not  the 
beautiful  artistically,  nor  the  good  morally.  The 
rhythmic  undulations  of  the  sea  move  up  and 
down  on  a  right  line,  eternally  coming  and  going ; 
order  and  symmetry  suggest  a  rectilineal  power 
controlling  caprice  within  and  chaos  without; 
we  are  to  straighten  devious  conduct  both  in 
word  and  in  act.  The  curve  with  its  versatility, 
being  able  to  turn  at  every  point,  has  the  tempt- 
ation of  becoming  lawless,  or  purely  capricious, 
whirling  any  whither.  Of  itself  it  calls  for 
the  rule,  literally  and  metaphorically,  which 
is  straight-lined,  but  which,  taken  by  itself,  is  apt 
to  get  rigid  and  remorseless,  not  to  say,  fixed  and 
crystallized. 

So  we  trace  in  the  present  stage  a  few  of  the 
analogies  which  are  real  and  also  educative,  since 
the  human  mind  has  embodied  them  in  its  think- 
ing and  in  its  speaking.  Just  for  this  reason 
they  are  to  be  taken  up  by  the  child,  are  to  be 
re-thought  and  re-spoken  by  him,  in  order  to  reach 
down  to  the  fundamental  concepts  of  his  race  at 
their  very  source.  In  these  Gifts  they  are  played 
by  the  child,  always  attended  by  the  budding 
word,  which  is  now  born  anew  in  the  child-soul, 
as  it  was  primordially  in  the  race-soul. 

The  child  naturally  builds;  in  fact  every 
organism  must  build,  every  animal  has  this 
instinct  —  the  beaver,  bee,  bird ;  in  a  sense  the 
tree  may  be  said  to  build.  This  building  instinct 


180  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

is  deeply  connected  with  the  generative  impulse ; 
every  animate  object  constructs  in  some  fashion  a 
home  for  itself  and  its  young,  the  abode  of  the 
family.  The  house  is  originally  constructed  not 
so  much  for  the  individual  as  for  the  species. 
The  child  in  building  is  giving  utterance  to  his 
domestic  and  social  instinct,  rather  than  to  a 
selfish  one,  hence  it  should  be  cultivated  from  the 
very  start.  He  will  reproduce  his  own  home, 
probably,  first  of  all;  at  any  rate  he  will  build 
himself  into  an  environing  structure  of  some 
sort. 

Here  enters  especially  the  work  of  the  kinder- 
gardner,  taking  advantage  of  this  building  instinct 
of  the  child.  Instead  of  his  own  petty,  narrow 
environment,  he  can  be  made  to  build  in  outline 
the  whole  architectural  movement  of  mankind. 
The  instrumentalities  already  elaborated  in  the 
two  series,  rectilineal  and  curvilineal,  enable  him 
to  reproduce  the  larger  and  leading  features  of 
the  chief  edifices  of  the  world.  Thus  he  recre- 
ates in  himself  the  architectonic  soul  of  the  ages, 
and  makes  it  his  own ;  what  man  has  constructed 
outwardly,  he  will  reconstruct  inwardly,  for  it  all 
lies  simmering,  bubbling,  struggling  within  him. 

Of  course  this  inner  reconstruction  of  great 
architecture  is  awakened  in  him  through  his  outer 
reproducing  of  it  with  his  little  building  blocks. 

A  brief  survey  of  this  architectural  movement 
of  time,  which  can  be  re-created  in  the  kinder- 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.  181 

garden  for  unfolding  the  constructive  spirit  of 
the  child,  may  be  here  given. 

(1.)  We  shall  begin  with  a  notice  of  Greek 
architecture,  which  is  mainly  rectilineal,  its 
ground-form  being  that  of  the  parallelogram,  as 
already  stated,  which  determines  the  most  of  the 
outlines  of  the  Greek  temple.  The  whole  en- 
tablature (excluding  the  pediment)  is  a  horizontal 
right  line,  and  is  the  supported ;  the  colonnade  has 
the  vertical  right  line,  and  represents  the  support- 
ing; .the  two  lines  meet  at  many  points,  forming 
rectangular  figures,  up  and  down,  on  end  (be- 
tween columns),  on  the  side  (the  front  of  the 
temple),  flat  on  the  back  (the  floor  or  the  stylo- 
bat).  Even  the  ceiling  has  quadrangular  deco- 
rations (cassettes).  The  triangle,  still  right- 
lined,  appears  in  the  pediment.  The  whole 
temple  is  a  parallelopipedon  crowned  by  a 
triangular  prism  (obtuse-angled  isosceles). 

It  is  at  once  apparent  how  Froebel's  building 
blocks  show  the  fundamental  forms  of  Greek 
architecture,  which  is  so  strongly  rectilineal  and 
rectangular.  Out  of  them  can  be  built  a  sug- 
gestive miniature  of  the  Parthenon,  the  most 
beautiful  structure  in  the  world.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  to  say  that  they  have  no  artistic  element 
in  them,  as  some  objectors  have  affirmed. 

Still  Greek  architecture  could  not  wholly  dis- 
pense with  the  curvilinear  element,  which  is 
nobly  represented  in  the  column.  This  is  really 


182  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

a  harmonious  unity  of  the  straight  and  the  round ; 
it  is  a  decided  vertical  line  on  the  one  hand,  in 
strong  contrast  with  the  horizontal  line  of  the 
architrave  (or  cross-beam)  which  it  supports. 
Still  the  rotundity  of  the  column  is  what  draws 
and  fascinates  the  eye.  It  is  a  significant  thought 
that  the  supporting  principle  should  be  round, 
Avhile  the  supported  is  right-lined  and  right- 
angled  —  the  one  erect,  the  other  prostrate. 

The  Greek  architect,  however,  was  not  satis- 
fied with  the  simple,  monotonous  roundness  of 
his  column.  So  he  fluted  it,  cutting  its  surface 
into  straight  perpendicular  lines,  thus  emphasiz- 
ing its  verticalisni.  But  he  also  added  what  may 
be  called  the  concave  straight  line,  which  is  the 
fluting  proper.  In  this  way  he  gave  to  his  col- 
umn three  kinds  of  vertical  lines,  all  carrying  the 
eye  upwards — a  simple  line  or  edge,  a  concave 
line,  and  the  total  columnar  line,  which  is  in 
effect  convex. 

Thus  the  artistic  Greek  added  the  variety  of 
thought,  yea  of  the  Psychosis  itself  to  his  column, 
thereby  involving  and  interesting  the  Ego  of  the 
beholder.  Of  course  such  details  cannot  be 
given  in  the  kindergarden,  but  the  incipient  crea- 
tive principle  of  them  is  there,  and  the  kinder- 
gardner  should  know  whither  her  constructive 
work  is  leading  the  child,  namely  to  the  grand 
architectural  treasures  of  the  world. 

The  Greek  column  shows  already  a  turn  toward 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.  183 

the  curvilineal;  this  tendency  is  seen  unfolding 
more  and  more  in  the  development  of  the  so- 
called  orders  —  Doric,  Ionic,  Corinthian — the 
last  of  which  breaks  out  into  curved  foliage  in 

Q 

its  capital.  The  column  with  its  silent  voice  of 
stone  at  last  calls  for  the  arch,  which  appears 
with  Rome. 

(2.)  We  may  conceive  of  the  arch  as  arising 
out  of  the  Greek  column  and  the  architrave ;  two 
columns  bend  together  and  unite  with  the  archi- 
trave which  becomes  the  keystone.  The  vertical 
and  the  horizontal,  giving  up  their  rigidity  and 
turning  at  every  point,  are  transformed  into  the 
circular ;  or  the  rectilineal  dividing  within  itself, 
changes  direction  and  goes  over  into  the  curvi- 
lineal. Thus  the  arch  is  its  own  column  and  its 
own  architrave ;  it  unites  what  is  separated  in 
Greek  architecture,  yet  is  itself  a  curve,  that  is, 
it  separates  from  itself  at  every  point,  and  so  we 
may  consider  it  in  this  sense  as  belonging  to  the 
separative  stage. 

The  arch,  though  not  invented  by  Rome,  was 
adopted  by  it  as  its  fundamental  constructive 
form.  It  is,  indeed,  a  type  of  Rome,  and  was 
so  regarded  by  the  Romans  themselves,  who 
represented  their  own  spirit  in  the  Triumphal 
Arch  more  adequately  and  originally  than  in  any 
work  of  art.  The  arch,  closely  wedged  together, 
can  bear  the  burden  of  a  world  upon  its  back. 
Not  so  the  architrave  of  a  Greek  temple,  which 


184  THK  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

will  break  under  too  great  a  weight,  even  under 
its  own  weight,  unless  duly  supported  beneath. 
The  arch  overcanopies  space  indefinitely,  and 
protects  what  is  under  it  —  another  suggestion 
of  Rome's  spirit  in  the  world's  history.  But 
the  Greek  temple  cannot  be  pushed  beyond 
a  certain  size;  the  Parthenon  is  about  the 
limit.  Hadrian's  temple  of  Zeus  at  Athens 
exceeds  the  limit,  it  was  colossal  but  ugly,  show- 
ing what  Greek  art  with  its  moderation  became 
in  Roman  hands. 

We  have  already  intimated  that  the  Romans 
were  not  the  first  people  to  employ  the  arch,  but 
they  were  the  first  to  realize  fully  its  possibilities. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Assyrians  and  the 
Egyptians  had  used  the  arch  before  even  the 
founding  of  Rome.  In  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
Assyrian  palace  at  Khorsabad,  we  find  a  very 
complete  application  of  the  semi-circular  arch, 
going  back  to  the  reign  of  King  Sargon  in  the 
eighth  century,  B.  C.  The  Egyptians  used  the 
arch  for  the  vaulting  of  drains  and  of  tombs  at 
least  1000  B.  C.  The  Etruscans,  of  ten  supposed 
to  be  of  Oriental  descent,  knew  the  arch,  and  it 
was  doubtless  they  who  built  the  Cloaca  Maxima 
at  Rome,  an  arched  sewer  which  is  still  perfect 
and  in  use,  and  whose  round  mouth  can  be  looked 
into  by  the  curious  tourist,  where  it  opens  into 
the  Tiber. 

But  the  arch,  when  it  rises  into  the  realm  of 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.  185 

art  and  becomes  truly  architectural,  seems  to 
demand  a  setting  of  right  lines;  it  shows  too 
much  of  the  naked  utility  to  be  beautiful  in 
itself.  The  Roman  Triumphal  Arch,  already 
alluded  to,  had  to  be  placed  in  the  framework 
of  Greek  column  and  cross-beam,  the  whole 
taking  the  shape  of  a  parallelogram  in  outline. 

( 3 . )  Thus  the  union  of  the  rectilineal  and  the 
curvilineal  begins  to  take  place  at  Rome  in  the 
days  of  her  glory.  She  seized  upon  Greek 
beauty  to  adorn  Roman  strength,  and  so  we  often 
see  that  the  Greek  column  and  entablature  at 
Rome  were  purely  decorative,  and  not  structural. 
Thereby,  however,  Greek  art  became  an  external 
matter,  an  outside  ornament  put  on  by  the  con- 
queror of  the  world  for  self-glorification.  Very 
common  in  Roman  architecture  is  the  conjunction 
of  the  arch  and  wall  with  the  Greek  column  and 
entablature ;  it  is  the  arch  and  the  wall  that  are 
doing  the  work  of  supporting,  while  the  column 
(usually  the  Corinthian  in  full  dress)  stands  by 
and  looks  on,  a  kind  of  servant  in  livery. 

But  this  external  conjunction  of  the  curvi- 
lineal and  rectilineal  of  Roman  and  Greek  struc- 
tural forms,  is  to  become  internal,  intergrown  in 
an  organic  unity  of  the  two  elements.  This  is 
the  work  of  Christianity,  which  is  to  unite  the 
Greco-Roman  world  by  an  inner  bond,  which 
will  manifest  itself  not  only  in  creed  and  doctrine, 
but  also  in  buildings,  especially  in  the  church, 


186  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  home  of  worship  and  faith.  Christian  archi- 
tecture will  join  the  column  and  the  arch  in  a 
new  marriage,  which  will  assume  many  shapes. 
Already  the  Basilica  gives  indications  which  are 
developed  in  the  Romanesque  and  the  Gothic. 
Finally  the  Renascence  will  return  to  Greece  and 
Rome  and  re-embody  classic  architectural  forms, 
yet  with  the  experience  of  medieval  Christendom. 

We  have  given  this  brief  survey  of  the  archi- 
tectural movement  of  the  European  race  in  order 
to  bring  out  the  interplay  between  the  rectilineal 
and  the  curvilineal,  and  still  further,  to  indicate 
that  the  child  can  produce  that  movement  in 
child-like  outline  by  means  of  his  play-gifts,  if 
these  be  made  complete  by  the  addition  of  the 
round  forms.  The  arch  and  the  rectilineal  par- 
allelogram ( composed  of  two  columns  and  archi- 
trave) are  the  two  main  elements  in  the  develop- 
ment of  architecture ;  both  can  certainly  be  given 
to  the  child,  who  will  combine  them  into  many 
structural  forms  and  ornaments,  which  have 
their  counterparts  in  the  genetic  history  of 
building. 

Though  there  have  been  repeated  attempts  to 
develop  more  fully  the  architectural  forms  of 
Froebel's  Building  Gifts,  none  of  them  have  been 
apparently  taken  up  into  the  kiudergarden  or- 
ganism. In  Froebel's  time  such  attempts  were 
made,  though  he  seems  not  to  have  adopted  them. 
( See  translation  from  the  ' '  Reminiscences  "  on  a 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  187 

preceding  page.  Dr.  Georgens'  building  blocks, 
by  means  of  which  "  architectural  forms  of  the 
Gothic  and  Italian  style  "  can  be  constructed, 
are  only  known  to  us  through  the  allusions  in 
a  note  to  Hanschmann's  Froebel's  Leben,  s. 
397.) 

Here,  then,  we  bring  to  a  conclusion  the  Gifts 
of  Concrete  Magnitude,  in  which  we  have  deriva- 
tion by  external  division,  whose  parts  have 
remained  solid,  with  Plane,  Edge,  Corner  (Sur- 
face, Line,  Point)  present  in  material  connection, 
unseparated.  But  now  these  are  to  be  separated 
from  the  outside  of  the  solid  Gifts,  and  consid- 
ered as  they  are  in  themselves,  or,  more  deeply, 
they  are  to  be  extracted  from  the  inside  of  the 
solid  Sphere  and  are  to  be  held  asunder  and  are 
to  be  regarded  in  their  own  right.  Such  a  deri- 
vation is  now  internal,  made  by  the  Ego  for  the 
Ego,  getting  rid,  first  of  one  dimension  of  mat- 
ter, then  of  two,  and  finally  of  all.  This  process 
is  what  we  are  next  to  study . 

B.  GIFTS  OF  ABSTRACT  MAGNITUDE.  These  are 
the  Surface,  Line,  and  Point,  and  are  derived 
from  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude  by  abstrac- 
tion, by  separation  from  the  solid  with  its  three 
dimensions.  We  are  now  to  go  through  a  series 
of  magnitudes  which  have  successively  two 
dimensions,  one,  and  finally  none  at  all. 

In  the  preceding  Gifts  already  the  child  has 


188  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

seen,  handled  and  spoken  of  side,  edge,  and  cor- 
ner, or  possibly  of  Surface,  Line,  and  Point. 
They  are  real,  sensuous,  material  in  the  Cube  and 
other  rectilineal  ani  curvilineal  figures ;  but  in 
the"  present  stage  of  the  Gifts  they  are  abstract, 
non-material,  ideal.  They  are  to  be  grasped  by 
mind  as  they  are  in  themselves,  and  not  as  con- 
nected with  the  solid.  Thus  we  are  made  con- 
scious of  them  as  the  pure  elements  of  form, 
being  separated  from  the  material  object  in  which 
they  were,  and  given  a  name  in  their  own  right. 
Thereby  they  become  tools  of  the  mind,  with 
which  it  re-shapes  and  re-constructs  the  world 
of  matter. 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  little  child  is 
not  equal  to  this  power  of  abstraction,  which  in 
the  educative  process  properly  belongs  to  the 
youth  who  is  beginning  the  study  of  Geometry. 
Still  the  child  is  not  wholly  to  lose  such  a  train- 
ing in  the  present  age ;  if  he  cannot  yet  think 
apart  from  the  sensuous  object,  then  the  sensuous 
object  is  to  be  brought  to  him  laden  with  its 
thought.  The  Surface,  Line,  and  Point  must  be 
materialized  for  him,  in  order  that  he  may  begin 
his  mastery  of  the  external  world  of  Nature. 

With  this  purpose  in  mind  Froebel  comes  to 
him,  having  unfolded  these  Gifts  of  Abstract 
Magnitude,  which  may  be  said  to  be  a  re-embod- 
iment or  re-incarnation  of  the  pure  geometrical 
elements  which  underlie  all  material  forms.  Such 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.  189 

is  the  fundamental  purpose  of  the  present  series 
of  Gifts. 

The  science  of  Geometry,  therefore,  has  gone 
in  advance  of  these  Gifts,  which,  however,  are  to 
bring  it,  in  its  basic  principles,  to  the  child  in  the 
child's  own  way.  The  old  Greek  philosophers  cul- 
tivated this  science  specially ;  they  did  not  begin  it, 
but  certainly  gave  it  a  great  development.  They 
quite  completed  the  abstraction  of  geometrical 
concepts  from  concrete  matter,  and  thus  ideally 
mastered  the  same.  The  Geometry  of  Euclid  has 
been  the  text-book  of  the  ages  since  its  writing, 
and  it  still  remains  a  standard  work.  From 
Pythagoras  down  it  may  be  said  that  all  the  great 
teachers  of  Hellas  regarded  this  abstraction  from 
the  sensuous  world  as  the  primary  discipline  for 
the  soul  both  intellectually  and  morally. 

Geometry  is  a  continuous  evolution  unfolding 
along  with  the  race.  From  indications  of  the 
monuments,  the  Egyptians  proved  the  so-called 
Pythagorean  proposition  by  means  of  square 
blocks  or  tablets  —  a  method  which  the  kinder- 
gardner  to-day  uses  or  can  use  with  her  children. 
It  may  be  interesting  to  note,  in  regard  to  this 
proposition,  that  the  two  kinds  of  proof  are  the 
sensuous  and  the  abstract,  the  latter  being  purely 
geometric,  and  yet  derived  from  the  former. 
The  kindergarden  in  the  person  of  the  child,  goes 
back  to  the  race's  beginning,  and  re-embodies 
the  abstraction  in  its  primordial  concrete  shape. 


190  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

(This  Pythagorean  proposition  is  the  well-known 
one :  The  square  of  the  hypothenuse  equals  the 
sum  of  the  squares  of  the  other  two  sides . ) 

Here,  then,  we  can  observe  the  process  which 
is  the  characteristic  and  life-giving  movement  of 
the  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude:  first  is  the 
material  world  as  taken  up  by  the  senses  in  all 
its  fullness  and  immediacy ;  second  is  the  separa- 
tion or  the  abstraction  of  these  fundamental 
geometric  forms,  the  Surface,  the  Line,  the 
Point ;  third  is  the  return  of  these  forms  to  the 
sense-world,  in  which  they  are  re-bodied  for  the 
child.  Such  is  the  threefold  act  of  mind  (the 
Psychosis)  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  these  Gifts 
of  Abstract  Magnitude,  and  gives  to  them  their 
fundamental  distinction,  organizing  them  in  ac- 
cord with  the  movement  of  the  child's  Ego  itself. 

It  will  be  worth  while  to  note  the  same  process 
in  other  fields  of  man's  spiritual  activity.  Let 
us  watch  it  in  Ethics.  First  is  the  concrete  act, 
let  us  say,  of  the  just  man ;  second  is  the  abstrac- 
tion of  the  essence  of  the  act,  and  then  the 
giving  it  a  name,  justice,  which  is  no  longer 
individual,  but  universal;  third  is  the  re-embodi- 
ment of  this  abstract  concept  in  the  conduct  of 
men,  which  is  the  return  to  the  first  stage.  But 
what  is  gained  by  this  procedure?  That  which 
belonged  to  the  one,  now  belongs  or  may  belong 
to  all ;  not  one  man  alone  is  to  be  just,  but  all 
men  are  to  participate  in  justice,  which  thus 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  191 

becomes  a  virtue  and  is  impartable,  teachable. 
So  it  is  with  the  other  virtues,  which  are  abstrac- 
tions from  real  life  in  the  first  place ;  the  brave, 
the  temperate,  the  wise,  the  good  man  calls  forth 
courage,  temperance,  wisdom,  goodness,  and, 
moreover,  starts  the  science  of  Ethics,  whose 
function  is  to  impart  these  virtues  to  all,  so  that 
every  human  being  can  re-incarnate  them  in  his 
own  life. 

It  was,  therefore,  the  grandest  epoch  in  the 
moral  history  of  man,  when  he  began  to  separate 
virtue  from  its  immediate,  instinctive  unity  in 
conduct  and  to  look  at  it  abstractly,  as  it  is  in  it- 
self. The  grandest  epoch,  we  say,  for  that  which 
hitherto  had  been  the  virtuous  property  of  one 
hero,  or  of  one  good  man,  began  to  be  the  prop- 
erty of  all,  universal,  just  through  this  might  of 
abstraction.  Specially  the  time  of  the  old  Greek 
Philosophers  was  such  an  epoch,  the  culmination 
of  which  was  reached  in  Socrates,  and  he  trans- 
mitted the  work  to  the  thinkers  who  came  after 
him,  and  who  organized  ethical  science  substan- 
tially as  it  exists  to-day. 

Of  interest  to  us  in  the  present  connection  is 
the  fact  that  these  same  Greek  thinkers  at  the 
same  time  were  developing  the  science  of  Geome- 
try, which  is  an  abstraction  from  the  sense- world 
primarily  in  order  to  get  possession  of  the  same. 
In  like  manner  the  science  of  Ethics  is  an  abstrac- 
tion from  the  immediate  sensuous  deed  in  order 


192  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

to  find  out  the  true  nature  thereof  and  then  to 
control  the  same.  Both  sciences  have,  therefore, 
a  common  character  and  often  have  had  promo- 
ters in  common.  Pythagoras,  also  a  moralist,  is 
said  to  have  sacrificed  a  hecatomb  in  his  joy  and 
thanksgiving  to  the  Gods  when  he  discovered  the 
geometric  proposition  which  goes  still  by  his 
name.  Plato's  love  of  Geometry  is  celebrated  in 
his  works,  and  he  is  said  to  have  made  it  a  kind 
of  examination  test  for  entrance  to  his  Academy. 
It  indeed  tallies  with  his  love  of  the  Ethical  and 
of  the  Ideal  generally,  which  insisted  so  strongly 
upon  the  subordination  of  the  sensuous  and 
material  elements  in  man  and  nature. 

And  here  it  ought  to  be  noticed  that  the  re- 
embodiment  of  the  Ethical  in  the  concrete  form 
of  life  is  likewise  a  part  of  the  work  of  the 
kindergarden.  The  story,  the  fairy-tale,  the 
fable  is  a  kind  of  re-incarnation  of  some  good, 
or  of  some  virtue,  which  the  child  cannot  take  in 
its  abstract  form.  The  great  end  of  the  story, 
indeed  of  all  education,  is  the  moral  one,  and  un- 
less the  story  has  a  moral  content,  it  is  not 
educative.  To  be  sure,  we  are  not  to  moralize  to 
children,  or  at  least  very  little;  to  moralize  is  to 
present  in  abstract  form  that  which  the  story 
ought  to  give  in  concrete.  To  introduce  morali- 
zing into  the  story  is,  therefore,  a  kind  of 
perversion,  which  the  child  himself  often  resents. 
But  we  must  not  infer  from  this,  as  some  have 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.  193 

done,  that  the  story  is  to  have  no  moral  content. 
It  ought  to  have  always,  still  this  moral  content 
is  to  be  completely  incarnated  for  the  child, 
though  the  kindergardner  herself  should  know 
the  abstract  meaning.  Indeed  it  is  through  such 
knowledge  that  she  can  rightly  choose  her  stories, 
rejecting  those  which  are  not  educative  or  imper- 
fectly so,  and  selecting  those  which  she  not  only 
feels  but  sees  to  be  genuinely  ethical,  and  also  in 
a  form  which  goes  home  to  the  child. 

So  we  bring  to  light  the  harmony  between  the 
ethical  and  the  geometrical  in  the  kindergarden 
of  to-day,  which  harmony,  however,  was  strongly 
brought  out  long  ago  by  the  ancient  Greek  sages. 
Note  again  that  the  Surface,  Line,  and  Point  do 
not  exist  in  nature,  but  are  abstractions  made  by 
the  mind  from  the  concrete  object,  and  hence  an 
ideal,  pure  product  of  the  brain.  Now  the 
science  of  these  ideal  forms  of  Matter  or  of 
Space  is  Geometry,  which  is,  therefore,  a  great 
trainer  of  the  spirit  in  the  work  of  freeing  itself 
from  sensuous  dependence  on  the  material  world, 
creating  its  own  pure  forms,  and  hence  so  praised 
by  Plato  as  a  discipline,  both  philosophical  and 
ethical. 

But  the  sciences  of  Ethics  and  Geometry  in 
their  abstract  shape  correspond  to  the  needs  of 
the  more  mature  or  more  developed  mind.  We 
must  repeat,  that  for  the  child  they  must  be 
re-embodied,  which  work  is  specially  Froebel's. 

13 


194  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

And  a  mighty  work  it  is,  one  of  the  greatest  in 
all  education.  It  was  Froebel  who  not  only  said 
that  the  child  must  not  lose  his  childhood,  but 
who  created  the  instrumentalities  so  that  he 
should  not  lose  it,  but  should  have  his  share  in 
these  two  grand  disciplines  (as  well  as  others)  of 
his  race.  The  Gifts  of  which  we  are  treating 
are  just  these  instrumentalities  in  one  direction. 
The  subject  is  so  rich  and  deeply  significant 
that  we  may  be  permitted  to  employ  one  more 
illustration,  this  time  taken  from  theology.  The 
immediate  embodiment  of  Christian  life  was  in 
that  of  Christ  —  his  deeds,  words,  conduct  in 
general.  Such  was  the  concrete  incarnation  of 
all  the  Christian  virtues  and  doctrines ;  then  began 
the  abstraction  of  them,  together  with  their 
designation  in  creed  and  dogma.  St.  Paul  began 
already  to  theologize  the  Christ-life  through  his 
Greek  culture,  and  the  process  kept  going  on  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  culminating  in  the 
Church's  greatest  theologian,  Thomas  Aquinas. 
And  this  process  has  not  yet  stopped  by  any 
means,  cannot  stop,  and,  we  think,  ought  not  to 
stop.  Still,  the  grand  object  of  creed,  dogma, 
confession  of  faith,  and  of  the  vast  ecclesiastical 
organism  from  top  to  bottom  is  to  re-incarnate 
that  Christ-life  in  every  Christian,  nay,  in  every 
human  being,  if  possible.  The  people  cannot 
rest  in  abstract  doctrine,  they  must  have  it  re- 
embodied  and  brought  home  to  their  very  senses, 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.  195 

hence  Christian  Art  —  Painting,  Sculpture, 
Music.  Re-embodied  also  in  word,  hence  among 
other  things  the  wonderful  Christian  Mythus. 
Both  theological  and  mythical  was  the  spirit  of 
medieval  Christendom,  which  had  a  grand  new 
incarnation  in  a  poet  and  his  works,  none  other 
than  Dante  Alighieri,  who  was  himself  both  —  a 
theologian  and  more  deeply  still,  a  genuine  myth- 
maker. 

The  student  may  now  see  that  Froebel's  Gifts 
of  Abstract  Magnitude  are  not  an  isolated  thing, 
not  some  whimsical  notion  of  their  inventor,  but 
are  connected  with  the  great  educative  movement 
of  mankind.  They  have  their  intimate  kinship 
with  some  of  the  deepest  spiritual  facts  in  the 
unfolding  of  the  race.  An  important  element  in 
all  education  they  are,  showing  both  the  power 
and  the  meaning  of  abstraction,  whereby  that 
which  was  before  sensuous,  particular,  special, 
becomes  ideal,  universal,  for  all.  And  now,  in 
the  fullness  of  time,  the  little  child  is  to  be 
brought  to  share  in  this  training. 

In  the  very  term  abstraction  lurks  the  thought 
of  separation,  and  thus  it  allies  itself  in  general 
with  the  second  or  separative  stage  of  the 
Ego,  to  which  we  have  assigned  already  the  Gifts 
of  Abstract  Magnitude.  Those  elements  —  Sur- 
face, Line,  Point  —  which  previously  have  been 
more  or  less  implicit,  have  now  become  com- 
pletely explicit,  separated  and  regarded  as  they 


196  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

are  in  themselves.  They  had  a  potential  exist- 
ence at  the  very  beginning  in  the  Ball,  but  they 
are  to  be  brought  out  of  their  hiding-place  and 
are  to  be  made  actual  to  the  senses  of  the  child. 

Still  further,  these  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magni- 
tude, though  they  be  the  second  stage  of  the 
Ego  in  the  movement  of  what  we  have  called  the 
Derived  Gifts,  bear  in  themselves  the  total  pro- 
cess of  the  Ego  in  its  three  stages.  Here  the 
student  must  seize  and  apply  that  most  impor- 
tant psychologic  fact  which  lies  in  all  true  organ- 
izing of  anything :  that  which  is  the  single  stage 
of  the  Psychosis  in  one  relation,  shows  the  total 
triple  movement  of  the  Psychosis  in  another 
relation.  For  the  Ego  is  to  grasp  one  phase  of 
itself,  but  just  in  the  act  of  grasping  a  part  of 
itself,  it  must  be  its  whole  self,  and  thus  reveal 
its  total  movement. 

The  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude  are  now  to 
be  seen  going  through  the  three  stages  of  their 
process,  which  may  be  stated  in  advance  as 
follows : — 

I.  Simple  separation  —  or  the  stage  of  imme- 
diate abstraction  from  the  solids  of  the  Gifts  of 
Abstract  Magnitude.  These  abstract  elements 
will  appear  as  simply  separated,  each  by  itself. 

1.  The  Surface. 

2.  The  Line. 

3.  The  Point. 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.  197 

II.  The  separative  movement  —  the  separation 
is  carried  not  only  to  the  Point,  but  into   the 
Point  itself,  which  thus  becomes  self -separating, 
and  thereby  begins  a  movement  out  of  itself,  a 
projection  of  itself,  which  reveals  its  generative 
character. 

1.  The  Point  as  self -separating. 

2.  From  Point  to  Line. 

3.  From  Line  to  Surface. 

III.  The  return  to  the  Surface  producing  the 
solid  —  the  movement  out  of  Abstract  to  Con- 
crete Magnitude ;  the  Surface  generates  the  solid 
from  which  it  was  once  separated,   and    so    we 
come  back  to  the  Cube  and  its  derivations. 

Herein  it  is  manifest  that  the  cycle  of  the 
Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude  has  completed  itself, 
having  passed  through  those  stages  which  we 
have  designated  above  and  which  correspond  to 
the  Psychosis.  Thus  it  seems  to  be  sprung  of 
the  Ego,  and  is  for  the  Ego  —  for  the  Ego  of  the 
child,  calling  it  forth  through  its  innermost 
nature,  which  also  has  implicit  within  itself  just 
this  psychical  movement.  Such  is  the  presup- 
position in  all  education :  the  Ego  receiving  and 
unfolding  must  be  in  a  deep  correspondence  with 
the  thing  received  and  unfolded. 

It  may  be  here  remarked  that  the  transition 
from  solid  to  surface  has  its  significant  place  in 
the  Fine  Arts.  Sculpture  keeps  the  solid  in 


198  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

its  length,  breadth,  and  thickness;  while  Paint- 
ing with  Drawing  passes  to  the  surface.  Archi- 
tecture in  one  sense  is  a  surface  built  in  the  form 
of  a  solid,  which  is,  therefore,  hollow.  More 
will  be  said  on  this  head  under  the  Occupations, 
in  Modeling  and  Drawing. 

In  general,  we  shall  observe  that  the  Gifts  of 
Abstract  Magnitude — Surface,  Line,  and  Point — 
begin  to  approach  closely  to  the  Occupations, 
whose  principle  (that  of  reproduction)  they  often 
manifest.  Still  we  are  in  the  realm  of  external 
combination  in  reproducing,  for  instance,  a  tri- 
angle by  the  laying  of  sticks,  and  so  this  whole 
division  properly  belongs  to  the  Gifts. 

I.  SIMPLE  OR  EXTERNAL  SEPARATION. — First, 
then,  we  shall  consider  these  Abstract  Magni- 
tudes in  a  state  of  simple  separation,  just  as  they 
are  taken  from  their  respective  solids,  each  being 
considered  by  itself.  Of  course,  in  the  Gifts 
now  presented,  they  are  to  be  re-embodied,  not 
retained  in  their  geometric  abstraction. 

In  an  implicit  way  they  have  been  embodied 
previously.  We  may  regard  the  Surface  embod- 
ied as  a  small  brick  or  even  cube;  the  Line 
materialized  may  be  a  small  cylinder  or  column ; 
the  Point  is  a  little  round  ball.  Such  sugges- 
tions we  have  had  hitherto ;  but  the  great  fact 
now  is  the  re-embodiment  of  these  abstract 
elements. 


FBOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.  199 

The  numbering  of  the  Gifts  of  Abstract  Mag- 
nitude has  been  and  still  is  unsettled.  Froebel 
did  not  number  them,  and  his  successors  have 
varied  from  one  another.  Still  no  great  confu- 
sion has  resulted,  chiefly  because  the  divisions  of 
the  subject  in  themselves  are  so  definite  —  Sur- 
face, Line,  Point.  It  would  be  well,  however, 
to  have  a  fixed  numbering,  if  possible.  No  in- 
dividual of  course  can  determine  this,  the  great 
kindergarden  organism  in  some  corporate  capac- 
ity ought  to  have  the  leading  word  in  such  a 
matter. 


200  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 


THE  SURFACE. 

This  is  the  first,  most  immediate  abstraction 
from  the  concrete  object,  two  of  whose  dimen- 
sions (length  and  breadth)  it  still  retains.  That 
is,  the  solid  loses  one  dimension  and  becomes 
surface,  which  is  through  the  Ego  and  for  tUe 
Ego  —  ideal. 

As  a  Gift  it  is  usually  numbered  the  Seventh 
in  the  regular  kindergarden  series,  though  it  is 
not  Froebel's  Seventh  Gift,  as  we  have  already 
seen.  Its  embodied  forms  are  known  under  the 
name  of  tablets  —  light  thin  objects  of  varied 
contour,  rectilineal,  curvilineal,  and  also  spherical 
in  some  of  the  concentric  shapes ;  and  they  may 
be  of  different  sizes.  It  is  the  Gift  of  the  Tab- 
lets, which  are  the  different  surfaces,  seen  first  in 
the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude,  but  now  ideally 
separated  and  re-materialized.  We  shall,  there- 
fore, apply  the  term  tablet  even  to  a  spherical 
surface,  though  usage  generally  applies  it  to  a 
flat  surface,  of  straight  or  round  outline. 

The  present  Gift,  accordingly,  represents  the 
first  stage  of  Abstract  Magnitude  —  the  abstrac- 
tion of  surface  from  the  solid.  These  forms,  we 
repeat,  do  not  exist  in  nature,  but  are  separated 


FKOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    201 

from  the  concrete  objects  of  nature  by  the  mind, 
whose  concepts  they  are ;  hence  they  are  ideal. 

Yet  they  are  the  means  by  which  the  mind, 
and  hence  the  man,  gets  hold  of  nature,  controls 
it  and  uses  it  for  his  own  purposes.  The  knowl- 
edge of  surface  is  a  part  of  the  science  of  Geom- 
etry, which  is  now  to  be  brought  down  to  the 
little  child  by  a  re-embodiment  of  the  abstraction 
in  its  own  right ;  that  is,  we  are  to  have  an  object 
which  represents  surface  alone.  Thus  we  behold 
the  movement  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  these 
Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude:  first,  the  imme- 
diate thing  of  nature  as  taken  up  by  the  senses ; 
secondly,  the  separation  and  the  seizing  of  the 
concept  of  Abstract  Magnitude,  here  specially  of 
the  surface;  thirdly,  the  fresh  embodiment  or 
materialization  of  this  abstraction,  which  thus 
takes  on,  so  to  speak,  its  own  body. 

The  surface  lies  nearer  to  the  solid  than  the 
point  or  the  line,  having  two  out  of  three  di- 
mensions of  the  solid.  Hence  it  comes  first  in 
the  order  of  the  senses,  though  not  in  the  strictly 
logical  order,  which,  through  separation,  takes  at 
once  a  leap  to  the  opposite,  the  point.  Still  we 
shall  have  to  evolve  the  point  first,  then  we  can 
employ  it ;  so  we  start  with  the  surface. 

The  present  Gift,  as  we  have  it,  always  causes 
trouble  to  the  student.  It  has  great  difficulties ; 
in  fact,  it  shows  an  inner  dissonance,  as  at  present 
taught  and  manipulated,  which  make  it  a  kind  of 


202  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

terror  to  the  kindergardner.  It  seems  to  have 
both  too  much  or  too  little,  easily  derived  in 
part,  and  in  part  difficult  to  derive ;  what  shall 
be  done  with  it?  Then  the  naming  and  num- 
bering of  it  have  caused  new  confusion ;  on  the 
whole,  it  is  the  most  chaotic,  disordered  Gift  in 
the  whole  kindergarden  series.  Can  a  fresh 
step  be  made  toward  the  ordering  of  it? 

Let  us  first  take  a  survey  of  its  material.  This 
is  usually  placed  before  us  in  five  or  seven  por- 
tions each  of  which  has  its  own  separate  box. 

1.  The  quadrangular    or    the    square    tablet, 
derived  directly  from  the  Cube.     Thus  the  child 
has  the  square  inch  embodied,  the  unit  of  meas- 
ure for  all  surfaces. 

2.  First  triangular  tablet,  or  the  right-angled 
isosceles  triangle  embodied.     It  is  produced  di- 
rectly from  the  preceding  square  by  a  diagonal 
line,  or  taken  from  the  end-side  of  the  triangular 
prism  of  the  Fifth  Gift.     Note  that  triangularity 
in  surface  now  enters. 

3.  The  equilateral  triangle    is   usually  intro- 
duced next,  being  called  the  simplest  and  most 
typical  of  all  triangles,  as  it  has  all  its  sides  of 
equal  length  and  is  also  equi-angular.     But  just 
here  comes  the  grand  breach  in  the  present  Gift : 
this  triangle  is  not  directly  derivable  from  any 
preceding  solid  form,  and  so  is  unlike  the  square 
or  the  right-angled  triangle  just  given.     More- 
over it  breaks   the   genetic   thread   which  runs 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    203 

through  all  of  Froebel's  Gifts   and  holds  them 
together  in  organic  unity. 

4.  The  right-angled  scalene  triangle,  which  is 
easily  derived  from  the  equilateral  triangle  by  a 
right  line  bi-secting  one  of    the  angles.     Or  it 
can  be  derived  from  an  oblong  by  a  diagonal 
line. 

5.  The  obtuse-angled  isosceles  triangle  which 
can  be  constructed  from  joining  two  of  the  pre- 
ceding triangles  (right-angled  scalene)  by  their 
short   sides.     Or   it   can    be    derived   from    an 
oblong  by  the  second  diagonal  line. 

Such  are  the  five  rectilinear  divisions  of  the 
Seventh  Gift,  as  taught  in  the  earlier  manuals. 
The  order  sometimes  varied  somewhat  from  the 
preceding. 

But  the  curvilinear  element  made  itself  felt  by 
its  absence,  and  so  we  have  had  more  recently 
introduced  some  round  tablets,  or  surfaces  with 
a  circular  edge.  Two  (or  three)  divisions  of 
these  forms. 

6.  The  circular  disc,  derived  from  a  section  of 
the  sphere  or  cylinder. 

7.  This  disc  has  been    halved,  giving   a  form 
bounded  by  a  straight  and  a  round  edge. 

8.  Quarters    of  the  circular  disc  are  now  to 
be  met  with  in  some  places. 

Thus  the  use  of  the  curvilineal  element  has 
shown  itself  more  strongly  in  the  Gifts  of  Ab- 
stract Magnitude  than  in  those  of  Concrete  Mag- 


204  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

nitude,  though  the  need  would  seem  to  be  quite 
the  same  in  both. 

9.  Concentric  surfaces.  Here  we  may  add,  by 
way  of  completeness,  that  a  new  series  has  been 
proposed,  but  hardly  yet  adopted  into  the  kinder- 
garden  organism.  This  is  the  concentric  idea  as 
applied  to  surfaces,  both  square,  round,  and 
cyclindrical,  derived  of  course  from  cube,  sphere, 
and  cylinder. 

Such  is  the  material  offered  by  the  Seventh 
Gift,  over  which  the  thinking  student  puzzles 
herself  a  good  deal,  bringing  up  many  problems. 
For  this  material  is  so  abounding  and  yet  so 
deficient;  with  an  outward  order  in  spots,  yet 
with  a  deep  inward  disorder  and  scission ;  certain 
surfaces  being  rejected  and  others  being  selected, 
apparently  by  pure  caprice.  The  fundamental 
question  is,  How  can  I  make  this  Gift  genetic,  in 
correspondence  with  the  total  movement  of  the 
Gifts  and  Occupations?  That  is,  genetic  by  sep- 
aration (fissiparisni) ,  as  has  been  the  chief  method 
hitherto,  always  of  course  to  be  followed  by  the 
return. 

Other  surfaces  possible.  Four  rectilineal  sur- 
faces are  chosen  from  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Mag- 
nitude— the  square,  the  right  isosceles  triangle,  the 
right  scalene,  and  the  obtuse  isosceles  (we  may 
leave  out  the  equilateral  for  the  present).  Why 
just  these  four,  when  many  others  are  possible? 
What  is  the  ground  of  selection?  Why  take  the 


FEOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    205 

square,  for  instance,  and  leave  out  the  oblong 
surface?  We  may  indeed  put  two  or  more 
squares  together  and  produce  the  oblong.  That 
is  not  quite  the  same,  still  let  it  pass.  We  not 
only  halve  the  Cube,  but  we  quarter  it  in  the 
Fifth  Gift;  why  not  do  the  same  with  the 
square  and  thus  make  the  abstract  and  the  con- 
crete Gifts  correspond  in  the  child's  mind? 

Then  we  halve  the  oblong  in  order  to  derive  the 
right  scalene  triangle,  hence  it  is  that  we  need 
the  conception  of  a  total  oblong,  not  of  two 
squares  put  together.  Still  further,  why  not 
draw  the  second  diagonal  through  the  oblong 
(brick),  and  produce  the  obtuse  isosceles  tri- 
angle? To  be  sure,  another  triangle  by  such 
division  makes  its  appearance  which  has  not  been 
adopted,  namely,  the  acute  isosceles.  But  what 
reason  can  be  given  for  taking  the  obtuse  isos- 
celes and  rejecting  the  acute  isosceles,  its  direct 
counterpart  and  brother?  And,  in  the  future, 
ought  we  to  put  both  in  or  throw  both  out? 
Such  questions  will  rise  in  the  most  conservative 
mind  thinking  closely  upon  this  Gift. 

When  we  come  to  the  curvilineal  series  we 
find  that  the  surfaces  have  not  only  been  halved 
but  quartered.  Why  should  not  the  same  rule 
apply  to  the  rectilineal  surfaces,  the  square  and 
the  oblong?  If  proportion  be  one  of  the  great 
ends  of  these  Gifts,  why  should  it  be  violated  in 
these  cases? 


206  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

These  questions  are  all  crying  for  one  thing :  a 
principle  of  selection.  What  law  shall  we  follow 
in  selecting  and  in  rejecting  the  surfaces  of  the 
present  Gift?  It  looks  as  if  caprice  had  been 
largely  dominant  hitherto,  or  at  least  some  sup- 
posed practical  necessity.  Still  practice  and 
theory  ought  not  to  continue  in  opposition  to 
each  other. 

The  right  scalene  triangle.  This  has  one  angle, 
the  right  angle,  permanent,  while  the  other  two 
angles  are  variable,  hence  there  may  be  many 
varieties  of  this  triangle.  The  most  natural 
derivation  of  it  in  the  present  Gift  is  from  the 
oblong  halved.  But  this  is  supposed  not  to  give 
the  best  angles,  which  are  usually  said  to  be  the 
angle  of  90,  60  and  30  degrees.  So  its  derivation 
has  been  adjusted  to  produce  these  angles.  One 
way  is  to  take  as  hypothenuse,  not  the  diagonal  of 
the  oblong,  but  the  longer  of  the  two  other  sides, 
and  construct  upon  it  a  new  right  scalene 
triangle,  which  is  supposed  to  show  the  desired 
angles. 

But  there  is  a  great  objection  to  this  deriva- 
tion :  it  produces  a  break  or  dislocation  in  the 
genetic  continuity  which  mars  its  simplicity  and 
directness,  and  quite  places  the  latter  (the  ge- 
netic unfolding)  beyond  the  reach  of  the  child. 
Moreover  it  covertly  introduces  a-  wholly  new 
principle  of  determining  the  triangle,  that 
through  the  angle.  Now  the  time  for  this,  we 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    207 

hold,  has  not  yet  come,  but  is  to  be  deferred  till 
stick-laying. 

'  Anything  like  an  explicit  measuring  or  naming 
of  angles,  excepting  possibly  the  right  angle, 
should  be  put  off  till  we  have  movable  sides, 
which  is  the  case  with  the  sticks.  If  you  intro- 
duce the  obtuse  and  the  acute  angles  into  the 
surface  or  solid,  the  child  will  think  that  these 
angles  are  as  fixed  as  the  right  angle,  whereas 
they  are  variable.  Any  angle  greater  than  a 
right  angle  is  obtuse,  any  angle  less  than  a  right 
angle  is  acute;  thus  there  are  hundreds,  yes 
millions  of  each  of  these  angles,  while  there  is 
but  one  right  angle  in  the  universe.  This  total 
difference  of  character  must  not  be  lost  on  the 
child :  the  one  angle  is  invariable  in  any  position, 
the  others  have  variability.  The  one  is,  there- 
fore, the  keystone  of  the  arch,  the  others  are 
the  multitudinous  stones  on  each  side  of  the 
arch.  Only  in  stick-laying,  in  which  the  line  is 
totally  abstracted  from  solid  or  surface,  and  is 
free  to  move,  can  the  child  obtain  the  true  notion 
of  variability,  since  the  angle  can  determine  the 
sides  according  to  its  size. 

The  right  scalene  triangle  as  surface  should 
not,  therefore,  be  used  to  instruct  the  child  in 
the  three  kinds  of  angles.  The  right  may  indeed 
be  designated,  for  it  is  the  stable  unit  of  all 
angularity  and  of  all  comparison  of  angles ;  but 
let  even  the  names  acute  and  obtuse  remain 


208  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

implicit,  till  they  can  be  illustrated  by  the  mova- 
ble sticks  which  belong  to  the  Eighth  Gift. 
This  need  not  be  long  deferred,  if  we  recollect 
that  it  is  a  principle  in  all  these  Gifts  that  they 
are  not  only  successive,  but  also  interrelated. 
So  we  can  have  the  sticks  very  soon  after  having 
the  first  lesson  in  the  tablets. 

Equilateral  triangle.  As  already  stated,  in  this 
triangle  lies  the  center  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
present  Gift.  It  is  the  simplest  of  all  the  triangu- 
lar forms,  just  the  typical  one,  yet  it  is  the  most 
refractory  one  in  its  derivation.  It  will  not 
somehow  pull  in  the  harness,  but  breaks  out  of 
the  direct  genetic  sequence  of  the  Gifts.  The 
kindergardner  loves  it  for  its  many  good  qualities, 
yet  she  cannot  put  it  in  order ;  she  will  not  think 
of  turning  it  out  of  school,  yet  it  confuses  all 
her  arrangements ;  she  is  like  the  man  who  has 
hold  of  the  galvanic  battery,  she  can't  let  go, 
yet  the  thing  makes  her  dance. 

A  few  words  upon  the  various  derivations  of 
this  triangle,  which  as  a  surface  should  be  directly 
taken  from  some  preceding  solid  known  to  the 
child.  But  no  such  solid  presents  itself,  at  least 
not  directly. 

First  of  all,  it  has  been  derived  geometrically 
by  inscribing  a  hexagonal  figure  in  a  circle. 
Thus  we  can  get  six  equilateral  triangles,  one  of 
which  is  the  shape  sought  for.  But  this  method, 
which  is  suggested  by  Goldainmer  (in  his  book 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    209 

on  the  Gifts,  p.  118,  Eng.  trans.)  is  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  child,  depending  as  it  does  upon  the 
proof  of  a  proposition  in  Geometry. 

Secondly,  the  equilateral  triangle  has  been 
derived  from  the  right  scalene.  Two  of  these 
put  together  by  their  middle  sides  may  produce 
the  form  desired,  but  does  not  always.  This 
derivation  (yet  it  is  really  not  derivation  but 
combination  of  forms  already  derived),  is,  there- 
fore, uncertain.  If  the  two  right  scalene  tri- 
angles are  given  the  necessary  angles,  namely, 
30,  60  and  90  degrees,  this  method  will  work, 
otherwise  not.  The  difficulty,  then,  is  thrown 
back  into  the  right  scalene  triangle. 

Thirdly,  a  cube  can  have  its  corners  cut  off  till 
it  becomes  an  octohedron.  Then  each  of  its  faces 
can  be  an  equilateral  triangle.  Here  the  objec- 
tion is  that  we  introduce  an  entirely  new  geo- 
metric form,  going  back  even  of  the  cube,  which 
has  been  the  source  of  all  derivation  hitherto 
after  the  sphere. 

Finally,  it  is  declared  that  this  octohedron  was 
genetically  introduced  into  Froebel's  Seventh  Gift 
(not  the  present  Seventh  Gift)  which  was  left 
unfinished.  Hence  the  argument  has  been  urged 
that  this  Gift  ought  to  be  finished  in  order  to 
supply  the  missing  link  which  is  felt  in  the 
tablets  of  the  equilateral  triangle.  Particularly 
has  this  view  been  enforced  by  M.  Guilliaume, 
who  argues  strongly  for  the  necessity  of  Froe- 

14. 


210  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

bel's  intermediate  gifts  (Seventh  and  Eighth)  in 
order  to  derive  in  full  these  triangular  tablets 
(see  Barnard's  Kindergarden  and  Child  Culture, 
p.  361). 

Our  solution,  as  already  intimated,  is  differ- 
ent. Guilliaunie's  proposition  leaves  untouched 
what  is  for  us  the  real  source  of  the  difficulty, 
namely  the  problem  of  the  variable  angles,  which 
call  loudly  for  the  free,  movable  line  of  the  next 
Gift  (stick-laying).  Whenever  we  come  ex- 
plicitly to  the  obtuse  and  the  acute  angle,  we 
must  pass  out  of  the  tablets  and  take  the  child 
along.  For  now  the  determinant  is  the  angle  and 

o  o 

a  variable  one  at  that,  and  it  must  have  a  fluid 
line,  as  it  were,  under  its  control. 

The  angles  of  the  equilateral  triangle  are 
acute;  they  as  well  as  other  acute  angles  in 

^  D 

triangular  forms  ought  to  be  laid  in  movable 
lines  by  the  child.  At  least  this  should  be  done 
in  the  beginning,  even  if  we  give  later  to  the 
child  the  tablet  of  the  equilateral  triangle,  that 
he  may  use  it  for  various  form-producing  com- 
binations. 

A  word  here  upon  the  preceding  derivations. 
When  two  right  scalene  triangles  of  a  certain 
kind  (as  above  described)  are  put  together  by 
their  middle  sides,  an  equilateral  triangle  is  pro- 
duced. But  such  a  result  is  not  properly  deriva- 
tion, as  there  is  no  genetic  separation  from  a 
solid  in  the  process,  but  it  is  simply  combina- 


FKOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.  211 

tion  of  two  surfaces  already  derived  from  the 
solid  corresponding  to  them.  Such  a  figure, 
therefore,  belongs  properly  to  Morphology,  as 
hundreds  of  other  forms  produced  by  combina- 
tion of  triangles  in  the  present  Gift.  Thus  an 
equilateral  triangle  produced  by  combination  and 
not  by  derivation  has  no  right  among  the  origi- 
nal tablets,  no  more  than  any  other  form  pro- 
duced by  uniting  several  tablets.  In  like  manner, 
the  obtuse  isosceles  has  been  formed  by  joining 
two  right  scalene  triangles  by  their  short  sides. 
This  again  is  not  true  derivation,  but  simple 
combination  of  forms  already  derived,  and 
hence  belongs  to  Morphology. 

Historical.  The  troubles  of  the  Seventh  Gift 
reach  back  to  Froebel  himself.  The  classic  pas- 
sage of  his  works  where  he  treats  of  it  is  brief, 
yet  fairly  distinct  as  far  as  it  goes  ( see  the  pas- 
sage in  Lange's  Pddagogik  des  Kindergartens,  p. 
570;  translation  by  Miss  Jarvis,  Education  by 
Development,  p.  326). 

Froebel  does  not  number  this  Gift,  in  fact  he 
does  not  consider  it  a  Gift  at  all,  but  a  wholly 
new  division  (neue  Abtheilung)  which  he  further 
divides  into  five  series,  and  these  series  are  sub- 
divided into  Gifts.  For  instance,  the  second 
series  of  this  grand  division  is  composed  of  right 
isosceles  triangles,  and  this  series  is  made  up  of 
five  Gifts,  which  contain  altogether  104  tablets. 
The  third  series  (equilateral  triangles)  of  the 


212  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

same  division  has  also  five  Gifts,  and  the  number 
of  tablets  reaches  the  sum  total  of  149  pieces. 

The  kindergarden  organism  has  had  to  reject 
a  large  part  of  this  enormous  material,  and  still 
there  is  probably  too  much  of  it.  It  is  clear  that 
Froebel  was  still  in  the  stage  of  experimentation 
with  this  Gift,  he  had  not  yet  organized  it.  The 
passage  referred  to  was  written  toward  the  end  of 
his  life. 

In  reference  to  derivation,  Froebel  merely 
mentions  it,  adding  that  "  it  cannot  be  here  car- 
ried out."  This  sounds  a  good  deal  like  shun- 
ning the  main  point.  One  other  expression  he 
uses:  "  To  the  thinking  man  it  (the  derivation) 
lies  tolerably  near  at  hand."  Really,  however,  the 
reader  wishes  to  know  how  to  bring  it  home  to 
the  child.  With  this  short  statement,  hardly 
more  than  a  page,  Froebel  passes  to  something 
else. 

The  next  view  we  shall  note  is  that  of  August 
Kohler  (Praxis  des  Kindergartens,  Dritte  Au- 
flage,  II.  s.  I-II),  who  designates  this  as  the 
Seventh  Gift,  and  its  five  subdivisions  as  the  five 
species  (Arten)  of  tablets.  This  is  an  advance 
upon  Froebel's  nomenclature,  and  Kohler 's 
method  of  treating  the  present  Gift  remains  in 
use  to-day.  But  he  has  no  curvilineal  tablets 
and  no  concentric  surfaces,  the  suggestion  of 
which  also  goes  back  to  Froebel.  Nor  does 
Kohler  very  seriously  concern  himself  about 


FBOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    213 

derivation,  being  apparently  more  of  an  imme- 
diately practical  than  of  a  theoretical  bent. 

The  last  of  the  earlier  important  authors  whom 
we  shall  cite  in  this  connection  is  Goldammer, 
who  names  each  kind  of  tablets  a  Gift  and  so  has 
a  series  of  five  Gifts  (from  the  Seventh  to  the 
Eleventh  inclusive).  Herein  he  has  not  been 
generally  followed.  But  Goldammer  pays  more 
attention  to  derivation  than  does  Kohler.  On 
this  side  he  is  more  profoundly  sympathetic  with 
Froebel,  who  always  insists  upon  the  inner  con- 
nection and  the  genetic  sequence  of  his  Gifts. 

Goldammer  derives  the  right  scalene  triangle 
from  the  oblong  brick  of  the  Fourth  Gift  by 
halving  it  diagonally  (p.  139),  just  as  the  right 
isoscles  was  derived  from  the  square.  This,  in 
our  view,  is  the  correct  procedure  and  best 
adapted  to  the  child.  Herein,  however,  Kohler 
is  different:  he  changes  the  hypothenuse  and 
constructs  a  new  right  scalene  triangle  in  which 
the  longer  side,  being  just  double  the  side  of  the 
square  or  of  the  equilateral  triangle,  is  taken  as 
the  hypothenuse.  (Praxis,  II,  s.  2.)  Goldam- 
mer's  procedure,  we  cannot  help  thinking,  is 
more  genetic  and  more  truly  educative,  though 
Kohler' s  procedure  has  largely  prevailed,  chiefly 
on  supposed  aesthetic  grounds  which  demand 
that  the  child  see  in  his  triangle  "  those  three 
beautiful  angles  "  of  90,  60,  and  30  degrees. 

We  may  add  here  that  Goldammer 's  ordering 


214  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

of  the  five  kinds  of  tablets  seems  to  us  better 
than  that  of  Kohler  (who  herein  follows 
Froebel),  inasmuch  as  he  (Goldammer)  places 
the  right  scalene  next  to  the  isosceles,  making  it 
the  third  of  the  series  and  thus  suggesting  the 
inner  connection  as  well  as  the  derivation.  Still, 
in  this  respect  also  Kohler  has  been  followed 
more  generally  than  Goldammer. 

In  one  matter,  however,  Kohler  has  not  been 
followed  by  those  coming  after  him.  From  the 
tablets  he  passes  at  once  in  his  exposition  to 
paper-folding,  to  an  Occupation,  which  he  calls 
the  Eighth  Gift.  In  general,  Kohler  makes  no 
fundamental  distinction  between  Gifts  and  Occu- 
pations, naming  and  numbering  them  all  as  Gifts. 
Herein  Goldammer 's  work  is  far  more  discrimin- 
ating and  has,  for  the  most  part,  furnished  the 
standard. 

Most  of  the  recent  kindergarden  manuals,  as 
far  as  we  have  examined  them,  call  the  Gift  of 
the  Tablets  the  Seventh  Gift,  and  it  is  probable 
that  this  numbering  will  continue,  though  it  has 
no  special  reason  for  existence.  We  think  that 
the  Seventh  Gift  should  be  the  curvilineal,  and 
the  Eighth  Gift  the  tablets. 

It  should  be  noted  that  one  of  the  discords 
produced  by  the  above  mentioned  change  in  the 
hypothenuse  of  the  right  scalene  triangle  is  that 
the  tablet  is  thrown  out  of  agreement  with  the 
net  of  square  inches  which  are  marked  off  upon 


FROEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    215 

the  kindergarden  play-tables.  The  equilateral 
triangle  shows  the  same  want  of  correspondence 
to  the  square  inch,  the  unit  of  measure,  so  that 
no  proportion  is  manifest  between  the  two  figures. 
In  fact,  this  unit  of  measure,  so  carefully  un- 
folded and  preserved  in  the  Building  Gifts,  is 
quite  set  aside  by  the  above  mentioned  change, 
which,  as  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  find  out,  is 
to  be  attributed  to  Kohler.  The  result  is  that 
not  only  is  the  thread  of  genetic  connection 
broken,  but  also  that  the  mind  of  the  child 
becomes  confused  about  a  basic  principle  of  the 
quantitative  Gifts,  namely,  measure. 

Summary  of  Contents.  It  is  evident  that  the 
Seventh  Gift  as  the  abstraction  of  surface  ought 
to  stand  in  the  closest  relation  to  the  preceding 
Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude.  The  two  belong 
together  and  should  correspond,  first,  by  direct 
derivation,  second,  by  completeness,  third,  by 
symmetry.  If  a  directly  derivable  surface  is  left 
out,  there  is  an  offense  against  completeness ;  if  a 
surface  not  directly  derivable  is  taken  up,  there 
is  a  sin  against  symmetry  as  well  as  against 
derivation.  We  shall  discuss  these  terms  more 
fully  later  on. 

We  shall  now  give  a  short  tabular  statement 
whose  purpose  is  to  order  the  contents  of  the 
Seventh  Gift,  showing  them  as  directly  derivable, 
as  complete,  and  as  symmetrical. 

I.  Rectilineal    surfaces  —  those    bounded    by 


216  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

straight  lines,  in  forms  both  quadrangular  and 
triangular.  Quadrangles  are  two,  the  square 
and  the  oblong,  each  of  which  is  divided  by  a 
first  diagonal  and  then  by  a  second  diagonal,  pro- 
ducing all  the  right-lined  triangular  forms  except 
the  equilateral.  So  the  rectilineal  surfaces,  both 
quadrangular  and  triangular,  are  to  be  directly 
derived  by  separation  from  the  cube  and  brick, 
solids  belonging  to  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magni- 
tude. 

II.  Curvilinear    surfaces  —  those     bounded 
wholly  or  in  part  by  curved  lines,  the  circular  and 
the   semi-circular,   derivable    from   the   ball   or 
cylinder.     Symmetry   demands   the   round   disc 
along  with  two  sections  of  it,  the  half  and  the 
quarter  (and  possibly  the  eighth). 

III.  Concentric  surfaces  —  derived  not  from  a 
side  or  section  of  the  Cube  or  Ball,  but  from  the 
total  solid,  embracing  its  whole  periphery,  or  all 
its  sides.     The  idea  here  is  that  of  totality  —  a 
totality  of  surface   is   presented,    say   in   three 
diminishing  forms  verging  toward  the  center  or 
point.     As  already  stated,  these  concentric  sur- 
faces have  not  yet  been  adopted  into  the  kinder- 
garden  organism,  though  they  were  suggested  bv 
Froebel    (see    Lange  II.   583;    trans,  by  Miss 
Jarvis,  II.  p.    342.     Also  in  Barnard,  p.  360). 

Psychologically  we  hold  that  this  concentric 
principle  both  in  the  Cube  and  the  Ball  is  neces- 
sary to  complete  the  doctrine  of  surfaces  in  the 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  QIFTS.-THE  SURFACE.    217 

kindergarden.  The  rectilinear  and  curvilinear  sur- 
faces, as  above  given,  are  partials,  while  these  con- 
centric surfaces  are  wholes.  Thus  they  are  true 
integrating  elements  which  unite  the  two  preced- 
ing forms  and  point  back  suggestively  to  the 
generating  center  of  all  Gifts. 

It  may  be  stated  here  that  Miss  Gliddon,  of 
Pratt  Institute,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  has  with  great 
labor  and  ingenuity,  constructed,  or  rather 
re-constructed  these  concentric  surfaces  in  such 
a  way  that  they  ought  to  be,  and,  we  hope,  soon 
will  be,  a  part  of  the  necessary  material  in  every 
kindergarden. 

Such  is  a  brief  ordered  survey  of  the  contents 
of  this  Seventh  Gift,  actual  and  possible.  Of 
course  the  objection  is  that  the  material  is  simply 
overwhelming,  not  to  be  compassed  by  child  or 
kindergardner.  Yet  something  has  to  be  done, 
and  the  question  again  rises,  What  selection  can 
be  made  out  of  this  mass,  getting  its  essence  and 
omitting  things  less  important? 

In  making  such  a  selection  we  should  keep  in 
mind  the  relation  between  the  Gifts  of  Abstract 
Magnitude  and  of  Concrete  Magnitude  (including 
the  Second  Gift),  how  the  former  are  derived 
from  the  latter,  and  how  they  should  correspond. 
The  surface  is  the  first  and  most  direct  abstrac- 
tion from  the  solid,  and  hence  the  correspond- 
ence of  the  two  is  the  most  intimate  and  imme- 
diate. If  the  derivation  of  the  surface  from  the 


218  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

solids  of  the  preceding  Gifts  be  broken  into,  dis- 
located, or  interfered  with  in  any  way,  there  is  at 
once  felt  a  jar,  a  break  in  the  genetic  spirit  of  the 
whole  series  of  the  Gifts,  which  is  $rst  perceived 
by  the  kindergardner,  but  is  sooner  or  later  com- 
municated to  the  child.  This  Seventh  Gift  has 
been  hitherto  the  seat  of  a  number  of  such 
discords. 

Discussion  of  Derivation  in  this  Gift.  —  In 
order  that  the  source  of  these  discords  among 
the  tablets  may  be  understood  better,  and  possi- 
bly avoided,  we  shall  lay  before  the  student  the 
following  thoughts  upon  derivation  in  the  present 
connection. 

(1.)  The  derivation  should  be  direct.  This 
characteristic  will  make  it  clear  and  natural  to 
the  child,  who  has  already  found  the  correspond- 
ing solids  in  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude. 
The  derivation  proceeds  by  the  principle  of  divis- 
ion, the  surface  is  taken  directly  from  the  cube 
and  the  oblong  and  their  solid  derivatives  in  the 
Building  Gifts,  and  also  from  the  round  bodies 
of  the  Second  Gift. 

Now  when  we  introduce  a  surface  not  directly 
derivable  from  the  solids  which  have  gone  before, 
as  the  equilateral  triangle,  we  snap  the  genetic 
link,  and  the  result  is  the  whole  chain  of  genesis 
in  the  Gifts,  and  in  the  Occupations  too,  is 
broken.  For  the  whole  chain  is  just  as  strong  as 
its  weakest  link,  which  when  snapped  leaves  the 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    219 

two  parts  of  the  chain  dangling  asunder.  Hence 
the  feeling  of  dissonance  which  always  acompa- 
nies,  according  to  the  testimony  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  most  experienced  kindergardners,  the 
equilateral  triangle  on  the  score  of  its  derivation. 

Again:  when  the  hypothenuse  of  the  right- 
angled  scalene  triangle  is  shifted  from  the  diagr 
onal  to  the  side  of  the  oblong  for  the  sake  of  the 
angles,  we  have  broken  the  genetic  connection  for 
some  outside  purpose,  and  there  is  a  violation  of 
the  principle  of  direct  inner  derivation. 

Again:  when  two  right  scalene  triangles  are 
put  together  by  their  short  sides  in  order  to  form 
the  obtuse  isosceles  triangle,  the  procedure  is  not 
one  of  derivation  from  the  solid  of  the  Building 
Gifts,  but  a  combination  of  two  pieces  into  a  new 
form,  and  so  belongs  strictly  to  Morphology. 
That  is,  such  a  form  is  not  primary  and  has  no 
more  business  to  be  an  independent  figure  than 
any  other  of  the  hundreds  of  combined  figures  of 
this  Gift. 

(2.)  The  derivation  should  be  complete.  That 
is,  all  the  derivable  surfaces  should  be  given,  at 
least  all  the  primary  and  essential  ones.  The 
corresponding  solids  of  the  Gifts  of  Concrete 
Magnitude  must  be  fully  represented  in  those  of 
Abstract  Magnitude,  else  there  is  a  gap  which 
the  child  himself  will  feel  and  sometimes  actually 
point  out.  Indeed,  if  the  genetic  purport  of  the 
Gifts  be  adequately  brought  out  in  his  manipula- 


220  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

tion  of  them,  he  will  be  almost  certain  to  discover 
the  vacancy. 

Now,  when  we  take  the  cube  and  abstract  its 
surface  for  the  square  tablet  and  leave  the  oblong 
without  any  representative  in  Abstract  Magnitude, 
there  is  the  shrillest  kind  of  dissonance,  and  the 
very  idea  of  derivation  is  stabbed  to  the  heart. 
In  the  name  of  all  the  prophets,  why  should 
genesis  act  on  the  cube  and  not  on  the  oblong? 
The  inconsistency  deepens  when  we  derive  a 
triangular  tablet  (the  right  scalene)  from  the 
oblong,  and  not  its  own  quadrangular  surface, 
though  the  latter  has  to  be  conceived  (that  is, 
generated)  before  we  can  get  the  former. 

Such  is  the  original  sin  against  completeness 
in  these  tablets,  but  there  are  lesser  sins  of  the 
same  sort.  The  taking  of  the  obtuse  isoscles 
and  the  leaving  out  of  the  acute  isoscles  when 
both  are  derived  by  the  same  act  of  diagonal 
division  of  the  oblong;  the  quartering  of  the 
round  tablet  and  not  of  the  square  tablet ;  the 
omission  of  all  concentric  surfaces,  spherical,  cy- 
lindrical, rectilineal,  are  offenses  against  complete- 
ness of  derivation,  as  well  as  against  symmetry. 

What  is  sought  for  is  a  totality  of  derivation, 
giving  the  entire  process  of  the  surface  in 
Abstract  Magnitude,  as  derived  from  the  Gifts 
of  Concrete  Magnitude. 

3.  The  derivation  should  be  symmetrical.  That 
is,  the  derived  forms  should  be  seen  coming  forth 


FKOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    221 

genetically  in  a  certain  order  and  proportion,  ful- 
filling their  inner  law.  All  incompleteness  is 
unsymmetrical,  but  not  all  completeness  is  sym- 
metrical. Completeness  demands  that  all  the 
derived  forms  be  given,  symmetry  demands  that 
all  and  no  more  be  given,  and  that  they  be  given 
in  their  genetic  order.  Excess  or  superfluity  is  a 
violation  of  symmetry,  though  not  necessarily 
of  completeness.  The  derivation  must  be,  there- 
fore, not  only  direct,  not  only  complete,  but  also 
ordered,  proportionate,  neither  too  much  nor  too 
little,  not  omitting  anything  inside  nor  adding 
anything  outside. 

For  instance,  when  the  right-scalene  triangle, 
derived  directly  from  the  oblong  by  the  first 
diagonal,  is  placed  after  the  obtuse  isosceles  tri- 
angle, derived  from  the  second  diagonal  of  the 
oblong,  there  is  an  offense  against  symmetry 
pure  and  simple,  against  the  order  of  derivation, 
which  otherwise  may  be  both  direct  arid  com- 
plete. Yet  this  offense  against  symmetry  is 
found  in  many  manuals.  To  order  the  right 
scalene,  or  the  obtuse  isosceles  after  the  equilat- 
eral triangle  is,  in  our  opinion,  an  offense  against 
symmetry,  which  does  not  permit  any  dislocation 
or  hap-hazard  arrangement  of  derived  forms. 

The  presence  of  the  equilateral  triangle  in  the 
tablets  is  a  sin  against  symmetry,  which  allows 
no  superfluous  or  outside  form,  as  well  as  against 
derivation,  which  must  be  direct  from  the  solid. 


222  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

The  omission  of  the  oblong  tablet,  and  the 
omission  of  the  acute  isosceles  triangle  are 
violations  of  symmetry  as  well  as  of  complete- 
ness of  derivation.  The  division  into  quarters  in 
the  Fifth  Gift  has  no  counterpart  in  the  tablets, 
still  less  has  the  suggested  division  into  eighths. 
Symmetry  and  completeness  require  that  they  at 
least  be  indicated  to  the  child,  who  will  finally 
call  for  them,  though  they  be  not  especially 
embodied  in  the  material  of  this  Gift. 

Such  are  the  three  general  principles  pertaining 
to  derivation,  which  may  be  of  some  guidance  to 
the  kindergardner  in  her  attempts  to  bring  into 
order  this  somewhat  chaotic  Gift.  Directness, 
completeness,  symmetry — these  will  show  the 
main  lines  of  relationship  between  the  antecedent 
solids  and  the  derived  surfaces.  Any  violation 
of  them,  at  least  in  the  primary  and  essential 
forms,  produces  a  breach  or  a  dissonance  in  the 
genetic  sequence,  which  mars  the  educative  value 
of  the  Gift. 

And  we  affirm  emphatically  that  the  child,  once 
getting  into  the  line  of  this  genetic  derivation, 
employs  far  more  quickly  and  easily  the  present 
Gift  and  its  related  Gifts  than  if  they  be  pre- 
sented unconnectedly  and  fragmentarily.  The 
reason  is  manifest :  he  himself,  his  Ego  is  just 
this  creative  energy  which  he  sees  unfolding  and 
taking  on  form  in  these  Gifts. 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    223 


OBSERVATIONS    ON    THE    TABLETS. 

The  present  Gift  is  not  put  up  in  a  single  box 
like  the  previous  Gifts,  but  has  several  boxes, 
one  for  each  kind  of  tablet.  The  number  of 
pieces  seems  not  so  fixed  as  in  the  solid  Gifts, 
and  the  rule  of  using  all  the  material  is  not  so 
rigidly  enforced. 

1.  The  training  of  the  eye  of  the  child  to  the 
unit  of  measure  is  continued  in  his  use  of  the 
square  inch  tablet  and  other  tablets.     Also  the 
training  of  the  eye  to  the  measurement  of  angles 
is  begun,  as  it  has  hitherto  been  accustomed  chiefly 
to  the  right  angle,  which  is  the   fixed  unit   of 
measure  or  comparison  for  the  variable  angles, 
obtuse  and  acute.     The  right  angle  dominates  in 
the  Building  Gifts  of  Froebel,  and  in  architecture 
generally,  in   the   house,    in   its   rooms,    doors, 
windows,    etc.     Particularly  Greek   architecture 
is  in  the  main  rectangular,  into  which  the  Roman 
introduced  his  arch.     The  right  angle  is  a  kind 
of  standard  of  angularity,  which  is  first  to   be 
acquired  by  the  child. 

2.  The  most  of  the  tablets  can  be  modeled  by 
the  child  out  of  clay,  when  he  has  begun  the  Oc- 
cupations, especially  the  first  one,  that  of  clay- 


224  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

modeling.  Thus  the  connection  between  the 
Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude  and  their  derivatives 
in  Abstract  Magnitude  becomes  more  vivid, 
indeed  it  becomes  an  outer  act  performed  by  the 
child  himself  in  correspondence  to  the  inner 
abstraction.  In  such  a  way  does  he  think  by 
doing,  or  make  his  doing  think.  In  the  Occupa- 
tions he  is  to  reproduce  his  material,  at  least  the 
form  of  it ;  so  he  forms  his  tablets,  which  hitherto 
have  been  given  him.  In  other  Occupations, 
such  as  paper-folding  and  paper-cutting,  the 
tablet  is  or  may  be  reproduced.  In  general,  the 
surface  begins  to  approach  and  invite  the  Occu- 
pations, furnishing  to  them  their  chief  material, 
namely  paper,  which  is  nothing  more  than  em- 
bodied surface  waiting  to  be  worked  over  into 
form. 

3.  If  we  relegate  the  equilateral  triangle,  espe- 
cially in  its  formation,  to  stick-laying,  where  it 
properly  belongs,  we  shall  be  rid  of  the  chief 
burden.  If  we  relegate  the  doctrine  of  angles, 
particularly  the  acute  and  the  obtuse,  to  the  next 
Gift,  where  it  Jias  the  conditions  of  a  proper 
treatment,  we  shall  have  time  and  opportunity 
for  something  else. 

If  we  leave  out  the  lesser  divisions,  the  eighths 
and  in  some  cases  possibly  the  quarters,  which 
are  secondary  and  less  essential  forms,  it  will  help 
keep  down  the  excessive  increase  of  material  — 
always  a  prime  object.  Still,  for  the  sake  of  sym- 


FKOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    225 

metry  and  completeness,  the  skillful  kindergard- 
ner  will  be  able  to  indicate  even  these  lesser 
divisions,  for  some  child  will  be  sooner  or  later 
asking  for  them.  , 

4.  Concentric  surfaces  have  little  constructive 
adaptability.  One  cannot  make  anything  with 
them;  thus  their  morphological  capacity  is  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  flat  surfaces,  rectilineal 
and  curvilineal,  which  are  capable  of  an  immense 
variety  of  forms.  In  this  respect,  the  concentric 
surface  (in  Abstract  Magnitude)  differs  from  the 
concentric  solid  (in  Concrete  Magnitude)  to  whose 
form  the  arch  in  all  its  sizes  belongs.  Still  the 
concentric  surface  is  a  logical  part  of  the  system 
of  surfaces,  and  hence  should  be  represented  in 
the  present  Gift.  It  gives  the  idea  of  complete- 
ness, which  is  not  in  the  rectilinear  or  curvilinear 
surfaces.  This  ^completeness  is  "often  popularly 
expressed  in  metaphor  by  the  terms  all-sidedness 
and  all-roundness  (Cube  and  Sphere).  The  sur- 
face in  concentrism  returns  into  itself,  so  to 
speak,  and  thus  completes  itself.  For  instance, 
the  curve  returning  into  itself  as  line  makes  the 
circle,  but  the  circle  returning  into  itself  makes 
the  sphere  or  completed  spherical  surface. 

Still  further,  concentrism  suggests  the  move- 
ment inwards,  to  the  genetic  Point,  which  is  the 
very  source  of  this  Gift  and  all  the  Gifts.  And 
the  Point  is  also  the  end  toward  which  this  Gift 
of  Abstract  Magnitude  is  tending,  so  that  these 

15 


226  THE  PS YCHOLOG T  OP 

concentric  forms  may  be  said  significantly  to 
point  towards  the  Point,  being  prophetic  of  the 
same.  Likewise  concentrism  suggests  the  move- 
ment outwards,  the  unfolding  of  the  inner  energy, 
which  manifests  its  degrees  of  power  in  these 
successive  layers. 

5.  In  regard  to  nomenclature  we  should 
observe  that  these  embodied  concentric  surfaces, 
even  when  spherical,  are  still  called  tablets,  though 
the  term  is  usually  applied  to  flat  surfaces, 
straight-lined  and  rounded.  In  the  sense  given 
the  egg-shell  would  be  a  tablet.  We  need  a  gen- 
eral term  embracing  rectilineal,  curvilineal  and 
spherical  surfaces,  when  re-embodied  in  this 
Gift  for  the  child ;  so  we  seize  upon  the  word 
tablet  and  press  it  into  service  till  a  better  is 
found.  Moreover  the  word  concentric  at  first 
suggests  the  circle  within  the  circle,  as  the  con- 
centric rings  in  water,  or  the  concentric  half- 
rings  in  a  rainbow.  But  here  we  apply  the  term 
to  spherical  forms,  and  even  to  rectilineal  square 
forms,  as  the  cube  within  cube  is  concentric. 
It  can  also  be  applied  to  the  cylinder,  the  cone, 
and  the  pyramid.  The  principle  of  concentrism 
is  co-ordinate  with,  but  distinct  from,  the  curve 
and  the  straight  line, 

Concentrism  accordingly,  shows,  not  the  linear, 
but  the  surface  movement  from  inner  to  outer 
and  from  outer  to  inner.  That  is,  the  total  sur- 
face moves,  not  limited  by  straight  lines  or  curves. 


FEOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  SURFACE.    227 

The  idea  of  totality  now  enters  the  surface  and 
completes  it  in  thought  and  for  thought.  The 
child  will  undoubtedly  take  this  idea  in  his  way, 
namely  through  the  sensuous  forms.  Not  much 
manipulation  is  required,  and  therefore  not  much 
time  is  taken.  Still  for  the  child,  too,  the  con- 
ception of  surface  is  by  these  concentric  forms 
made  complete. 

6.  The  question  of  color  has  not  been  touched 
upon,  being  deferred  till  we  come  to  the  Occupa- 
tions, in  which  it  is  first  to  be  employed   sys- 
tematically.    In  the  quantitative  Gifts,   color  is 
present,  but  its  application  is  not   explicitly  set 
forth ,  inasmuch  as  it  rightly  belongs  to  the  quali- 
tative Gifts.     The  fact  should  be   stated,    how- 
ever, that  the  earlier  kindergardners,  including 
Froebel    himself,    introduced    color    into    their 
tablet  work,  thus  making  this    complicated  Gift 
more    complicated,  and    adding   to  its    material 
already  overwhelming. 

7.  Again  let  us  come  back  to  the  fundamental 
idea   in   all   this   mass    of   things:     Derivation. 
The   child  is  to  develop  Derivation  within  and 
without,  to  commune  with  the  same  and  to  make 
it  his  own.     Thus  he  unfolds  the   inner  genetic 
principle  of  himself  and  of  the  world,  he  shares 
in  the  creative  act  of   the  universe,  and  this  is 
the  highest  goal  of   education.     For   it  is  this 
creative  act  which  unifies  him  with  the  creator. 

8.  Already  we  have  heard  the   voice  of  the 


228  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Surface  crying  out  for  the  Line,  which  bounds 
it,  determines  it,  in  a  sense  produces  it;  that 
was  the  call  for  the  movable  Line,  free,  inde- 
pendent, liberated  from  all  servitude  to  matter 
and  even  liberated  from  the  Surface.  To  this 
we  now  pass. 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.      229 


THE  LINE. 

If  we  now  take  away  in  thought  a  second 
dimension,  say  breadth,  from  the  surface,  we  have 
one  dimension  left,  length,  or  the  Line.  The 
solid,  losing  two  dimensions,  is  simply  lineal. 

Usually  the  forms  of  the  Line,  as  straight  or 
curved,  have  been  classified  in  two  Gifts  (sticks 
and  rings).  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  cur- 
vilineal  element  first  entered  the  Derived  Gifts  of 
Froebel  in  the  Line  (the  rings),  from  which  it 
seems  to  have  traveled  backwards  and  to  have 
suggested  the  round  tablets,  and  now  it  is  going 
back  still  further  and  is  laying  hold  of  the  solids. 
Thus  it  is  the  Line  which  classifies  and  gives 
name  to  the  rectilinear  and  curvilinear  Gifts  of 
Concrete  Magnitude  —  solids  which  are  straight- 
lined  and  curve-lined.  In  fact,  rotundity,  with 
which  we  started  in  the  Ball,  becomes  completelv 
explicit  and  free  in  the  round  line  or  circle. 

The  same  principles  of  derivation  hold  good  in 
the  line  as  in  the  surface,  namely,  there  should 
be  directness,  completeness,  symmetry.  The 
genetic  connection  must  remain  active  and  in  its 
integrity,  otherwise  the  educative  value  of  the 
Gift  is  impaired.  The  child  himself  will  trace 
the  relation  between  the  present  and  the  ante- 


230  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

cedent  forms,  he  will  feel  any  gap  in  the  suc- 
cession, and  be  confused  by  any  superfluity  or 
dislocation.  If  the  material  be  incomplete, 
disjointed,  disordered,  the  child,  whose  mind  is 
inherently  genetic,  will  lose  much  time  and  not 
get  the  main  thing  at  last. 

Our  task  is,  accordingly,  to  make  the  abstrac- 
tion of  the  Line  and  to  embody  that  in  a  material 
form.  It  has  been  with  us  from  the  beginning 
in  connection  with  solids  and  surfaces,  but  now 
it  is  to  be  made  free  and  to  be  regarded  as  it  is 
in  itself.  Here  we  may  note  the  same  process 
as  in  all  the  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude :  first 
is  the  concrete  solid,  second  is  the  abstraction, 
here  the  Line,  third  is  the  re-embodiment  of  this 
abstraction  for  the  child  in  the  form  of  sticks 
and  rings. 

The  single  dimension  which  is  now  separated 
and  held  fast  is  length,  while  the  tablet  had  two 
dimensions.  Thus  the  line  is  further  removed 
from  the  material  solid,  is  more  ideal  than  the 
surface,  in  which  the  line  is  still  an  edge  and  not 
yet  free.  We  may,  therefore,  say  that  the  line 
is  more  a  thing  of  mind  than  the  surface  and  is 
more  adjustable  to  mind  and  thought  than  the 
surface.  We  lay  the  sticks  (lines)  as  we  please,, 
but  in  the  tablet  the  line  is  fixed  in  the  material, 
is  determined  by  that,  and  not  by  us,  at  least  not 
directly  by  us.  Such  is  the  chief  new  fact 
appearing  in  the  line :  its  ideality,  its  freedom. 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.       231 

The  bound  or  the  limit,  accordingly,  is  cut  off 
from  its  obiect  and  set  free,  being  no  longer  fast 
in  matter.  It  is  movable,  having  all  the  liberty 
of  space,  and  can  be  run  any  whither,  even  to  the 
furthest  star.  This  property  is  what  gives  it  a 
form-making  power,  in  a  manner  we  shall  see 
that  these  sticks  introduce  us  to  formation,  even 
to  reproduction,  and  thus  herald  the  approach 
of  the  occupations. 

Let  us  trace  a  little  this  liberation  of  the  line, 
which  in  a  way  has  been  enslaved  from  the 
beginning  of  the  Gifts,  though  always  struggling 
toward- greater  freedom.  Nearest  to  being  free 
it  is  in  the  side  of  the  bounded  surface,  as  it 
shares  in  the  ideality  of  the  latter,  but  is  still 
tied  to  the  same  as  limit.  In  the  edge  of  the 
Cube  it  is  explicit,  visible,  yet  held  fast  in  matter. 
In  the  Sphere,  however,  it  is  implicit,  unseen, 
not  yet  brought  out,  not  yet  born  into  the  world. 
As  diameter  or  axis  of  the  Sphere,  it  is  merely  an 
internal  Line  which  is,  first  of  all,  to  make  itself 
outer.  This  undeveloped  stage  is  the  least  de- 
gree of  freedom.  So  the  diameter  of  the  Sphere, 
the  edge  of  the  Cube,  the  side  of  the  Square,  are 
all  steps  in  the  process  of  the  Line,  which  in  the 
Eighth  Gift  has  declared  itself  '  *  free  and  inde- 
pendent." 

When  we  consider  the  material  of  this  Gift 
(or  Gifts),  we  find  the  same  general  character ; 
there  is  no  absolute  fixity  in  it,  or  at  least  it 


232  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

allows  greater  variation  than  other  Gifts.  The 
sticks  are  put  up  in  packages,  say  ten  in  number, 
but  this  may  vary.  Then  the  number  of  sticks 
in  each  package  is  under  no  iron  necessity. 
They  are  usually  of  a  certain  length,  yet  they 
are  breakable  and  ought  to  be  broken  when  the 
end  in  view  demands  it,  for  this  is  not  destruc- 
tion, but  formation. 

Thus  the  material  through  its  freedom,  is 
adjustable,  it  begins  to  have  a  kind  of  plastic 
quality.  The  sticks  are  adjustable  in  space, 
being  movable;  adjustable  in  themselves,  as 
regards  length;  adjustable  in  the  quantity  of 
material,  at  least  up  to  a  certain  point.  Thus 
the  external  element  of  matter  is  no  longer  such 
a  controlling  thing  as  in  the  solid  Gifts ;  an  inner 
principle  seems  to  be  more  decisively  in  command. 

Still  this  new  freedom  must  not  be  allowed  to 
lapse  into  license,  wherein  lies  the  danger  of  the 
present  Gift.  Too  often  a  bundle  of  sticks  is 
thrown  to  the  child  that  he  may  give  vent  to  his 
caprice,  which  has  become  troublesome  to  the 
kindergardner,  or  uncontrollable. 

But  in  such  a  case  the  tub  will  not  usually 
satisfy  the  whale,  now  incarnate  in  the  form  of 
the  little  boy,  who  well  knows  what  the  whole 
thins:  means.  He  is  bound  to  assert  his  free- 

O 

dom,  having  in  hand  a  free  weapon.  Have  we 
not  seen  these  sticks  broken  to  pieces  and  thrown 
on  the  table  and  floor,  or  used  as  a  kind  of  bayo- 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.      233 

net  with  thrust  delivered  in  full  charge,  each 
child  trying  to  poke  it  into  the  ear,  nose,  mouth, 
eye  of  his  neighbor,  who  sets  up  a  howl  and 
retaliates  with  grim  vengeance?  Like  freedom 
itself,  these  free  sticks  can  be  employed  for  the 
greatest  disorder,  turning  the  kindergarden  into 
a  little  mob  full  of  riot  and  fight  and  chaos 
generally.  And  so  the  children,  like  many 
grown  people,  must  make  a  start  to  get  free  of 
some  of  their  freedom.  Accordingly  we  are  to 
have  order  in  stick-laying,  as  we  are  to  have  law 
in  our  liberty.  The  starting-point  is  to  bring 
order  into  our  material  and  to  connect  it  ge- 
netically, and,  if  possible,  symmetrically,  with 
what  has  gone  before.  We  found  in  the  solid 
Gifts  (concrete  magnitude),  as  well  as  in  the 
surfaces  which  we  have  just  considered,  a  move- 
ment of  this  sort:  rectilineal,  curvilineal,  unifi- 
cation of  the  two.  It  will  be  observed  that  this 
division  is  based  upon  the  line,  that  is,  upon  the 
very  element  which  is  now  abstracted  and  re- 
garded by  itself.  Thus  we  have  reached  down 
to  the  principle  itself  of  the  previous  organiza- 
tion of  the  Gifts,  which  principle  is  now  to 
organize  itself.  Let  us  see  how  it  will  behave 
in  this  new  domain,  whose  contents  may  be 
ordered  as  follows  :  — 

I.  Rectilinear  forms,  those  figures  which  are 
bounded  by  straight  lines,  and  so  are  given  in 
outline. 


234  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

1.  Quadrangular,   or  better,  quadrilateral  fig- 
ures,  such  as  the  square  or  the  oblong,  which 
are  now  re-produced  by  sticks. 

2.  Triangular  figures,  forriied  from  the  pre- 
ceding   by    diagonals,    which    give    the   various 
triangles.     Then   a  deeper  separation  here  takes 
place,  the  separation  between  sides  and  angles. 
The  angle  now  rises  into  importance  and  deter- 
mines the  side  which  is  movable.     Triangulation 
or  the  making  of  triangles  according  to  the  angle 
begins  at  this  stage  of  stick-laying. 

3.  Concentric  figures,  both  quadrangular  and 
triangular;    or   squares  within   squares    and  tri- 
angles within  triangles. 

(1.)  First  is  the  immediate  idea  of  size 
through  the  different  sizes  laid  alongside  of  one 
another. 

(2.)  A  new  difference  manifests  itself,  that 
between  size  and  form,  the  latter  being  the  fixed, 
the  invariable  —  all  these  sizes  of  triangles  in 
concentric  layers  have  the  same  form.  Also  the 
form  is  the  determinant  of  the  size,  which  thus 
finds  its  ground. 

(3.)  The  inner,  invisible  point,  the  genetic 
center  of  all  these  forms,  is  suggested  by  concen- 
trism,  which  moves  towards  the  same  as  its  source 
or  cause. 

All  concentric  figures,  though  they  be  recti- 
lineal in  form,  hint  a  determining  center  and  a 
line  extending  from  within  outwards,  which  line 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE,      235 

taken  as  a  radius  will  produce  a  circle.     Hence 
we  go  over  in  thought  to  the  following :  — 

II.  Curvilinear   forms — those   figures    which 
are  bounded  wholly  or  in  part  by  curved  lines, 
and  so  are  given  in  outline.     Usually  they  are 
made  to  constitute  a  new  Gift,  the  ninth,  that  of 
the  rings.     The  curves  are  confined  to  the  circle. 

1 .  The  entire  circle  as  an  outline  of  the  Sphere 
whose  rotundity  is  reduced  to  a  Line. 

2.  The  division  of  the  whole  circle  into  halves 
and  quarters  (and  possibly  eighths).     Thus  the 
rectilineal  element  enters    the    curvilineal    and 
unites  with  it  to  produce  new  figures. 

3.  Concentric  circles  or  rings,  of  three  sizes 
and   in  three  divisions,  all  pointing  toward  the 
determining  center. 

III.  The  two  elements  of  the  Line,,  the  straight 
and  the  curved,  are  united  in  many  ways,  produc- 
ing many  forms.     Already  we  noticed  the  recti- 
lineal separating  yet  joined  with  the  curvilineal 
in  the  half  and  quarter  circle.     A  full  develop- 
ment of  the  forms  which  result  from  the  union  of 
these  two  elements  belongs  to  the  Morphology 
of  the  Gifts,  which  subject  lies  outside  of  our 
present  plan. 

Such,  however,  is  a  brief  summary  of  the  em- 
bodied line,  the  second  stage  of  the  Gifts  of 
Abstract  Magnitude,  having  one  dimension,  that 
of  length.  Its  relation  to  the  Gifts  of  Abstract 
Magnitude  is  manifest  from  the  preceding  outline, 


236  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

wherein  are  shown  its  direct  derivation,  its 
completeness  and  its  symmetry. 

The  student  will  note  how  strong  the  principle 
of  reproduction  of  previous  forms  is  in  this  Gift. 
Herein  it  approaches  the  character  of  the  Occu- 
pations whose  essential  fact  we  shall  see  to  be 
just  this  reproduction.  The  sticks  reproduce  in 
outline  all  the  surfaces,  square  and  round,  resem- 
bling the  Occupations  of  sewing,  dotting,  draw- 
ing. In  fact,  stick-laying  may  be  considered  an 
embodiment  of  rude  linear  drawing. 

Still  stick-laying  belongs  to  the  Gifts  and  not 
to  the  Occupations,  inasmuch  as  it  employs  ex- 
ternal combination  of  objects  and  not  the  inner 
properties  of  matter,  though  when  you  break  a 
stick  you  test  and  employ  an,  inner  property. 
Owing  to  the  freedom  of  the  Line  which  the  stick 
represents,  it  has  a  reproducing  power  in  its 
combinations.  So  the  Line  is  on  the  border  of 
the  Occupations  and  is  quite  ready  to  go  over  to 
that  realm,  where  we  shall  often  meet  with  it  in 
the  shape  of  a  thread  or  slat  or  strip,  or  even  a 
cut  Line.  Indeed  the  slat  is  a  Gift  if  its  pieces 
are  merely  laid  or  externally  combined;  when, 
however,  its  pieces  are  held  together  in  forms  by 
elasticity,  the  whole  belongs  to  the  occupations 
through  the  employment  of  an  inner  property  of 
matter.  (See  this  subject  unfolded  in  the  intro- 
duction to  the  Occupations.) 

The  Line  can  be  used  for  counting,  indeed  a 


FKOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.      237 

primitive  way  of  reckoning  or  keeping  tally  is  by 
means  of  little  sticks,  still  in  use  in  cases  where 
'  *  figures  can  be  made  to  lie  "  by  being  rubbed 
out  or  changed.  Indeed  the  abstraction  of  the 
Line  has  a  greater  affinity  for  number,  which  is 
also  an  abstraction,  than  the  solid  or  even  the  sur- 
face. Lines  easily  stand  for,  perchance  turn  to, 
numbers ;  hence  they  are  often  used  in  the  kin- 
dergarden  for  the  first  lessons  in  arithmetic. 

The  Line  gives  the  inch  in  length  and  hence 
furnishes  the  basic  measuring  unit  or  modulus 
for  distance.  The  linear  inch  is  now  separated 
from  the  cubic  inch  and  also  the  square  inch,  and 
does  service  in  its  own  right.  And  in  the 
matter  of  real  service,  it  mostly  performs 
the  work  of  the  other  two,  being  free  and 
adjustable;  we  measure  the  square  mile  by  a 
Line  as  well  as  the  cubic  yards  of  a  reser- 
voir or  an  excavation.  So  the  Line  is  the  prac- 
tical man  of  the  family,  who  finds  out  by  his 
yard-stick  or  tape-string  the  length,  breadth,  and 
height  of  the  object.  Actual  measuring  (and 
with  this  comes  necessarily  counting)  enters  in 
completeness  with  the  Line,  though  we  have 
made  a  beginning  in  the  previous  Gifts. 

Geometry  has  also  its  strong  claim  upon  stick- 
laying  ;  we  have  already  seen  how  important  it 
is  for  embodying  geometric  figures.  Especially 
the  doctrine  of  the  triangle  with  its  two  variable 
angles,  the  acute  and  the  obtuse,  belongs  here. 


238  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

In  stick-laying  we  should  introduce  whatever 
there  is  of  angle-measuring  (goniometry)  allow- 
able in  the  kindergarden  (which  cannot  be  very 
much).  Those  highly  important  angles  in  all 
construction,  30,  60,  45,  and  90  degrees,  the 
child  may  at  least  see  and  construct  in  his  more 
advanced  course,  even  if  he  does  not  name  them. 
To  a  certain  extent  he  can  become  familiar  with 
them  and  judge  of  them,  just  as  he  learns  dis- 
tance and  computes  it  unconsciously.  Thus  he 
is  making  a  faint  start  in  another  mathematical 
science,  trigonometry,  one  of  whose  main  elements 
rests  upon  angle-measuring  in  a  triangular  shape. 

Already  it  has  been  said  that  triangularity  has 
a  special  place  in  this  Gift.  We  may  note  a 
small  beginning  and  advance  in  several  important 
sciences  —  arithmetic,  geometry,  trigonometry, 
drawing.  All  this,  of  course,  is  given  in  play, 
with  material  things ;  but  the  play,  though  spon- 
taneous, is  filled  with  meaning  and  instruction; 
through  it  the  child  is  taking  possession  of  his 
true  spiritual  heritage  transmitted  from  the  past 
and  containing  the  future.  In  this  way  stick- 
laying  is  not  a  means  of  license  but  of  freedom, 
bringing  to  the  child  a  little  strain  of  the  cosmos 
and  not  a  discord  of  chaos. 

RINGS.  It  has  been  already  stated  that  the 
sticks  and  the  rings  have  been  arranged  in  two 
separate  Gifts.  The  ring  is  the  embodied  circle 
as  distinct  from  the  Sphere.  The  circle  has  a 


FBOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.       239 

very  important  place  both  in  nature  and  mind. 
In  the  latter,  it  has  always  been  taken  to  repre- 
sent in  outward  shape  the  return,  which  plays 
such  an  important  part  in  mythology,  poetry,  art, 
as  well  as  in  psychology.  It  is,  therefore,  one 
of  the  most  significant  and  cherished  symbols  of 
the  human  race.  In  these  gifts  it  appears  in 
genetic  order  next  to  the  last  one,  symbolizing  in 
outward  shape  the  return  which  is  soon  to  become 
inward.  Of  this  we  shall  speak  again. 

"We  have  already  unfolded  these  circular  forms 
in  their  psychical  order  and  connection.  Yet 
here  comes  the  first  discord.  That  the  curvi- 
lineal  element  should  be  placed  in  a  special  Gift 
and  thus  separated  from  the  rectilineal  throws 
the  movement  out  of  symmetry  with  the  Seventh 
Gift  in  which  both  elements  are  joined  together. 
Still  as  all  manuals  within  our  knowledge  are 
agreed  on  this  point  of  making  and  numbering 
the  two  Gifts,  we  shall  at  present  have  to  follow. 
It  is  true,  however,  that  the  numbering  of  the 
Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude  varies  in  the  differ- 
ent manuals,  though  most  of  the  later  ones  call 
the  rings  the  Ninth  Gift. 

The  quantity  and  kind  of  material  have  also 
varied  with  different  authors.  Froebel's  widow, 
who  published  after  his  death  this  play-gift  from 
suggestions  of  Froebel  himself,  has  24  whole 
circles  and  48  half  circles,  and  apparently  (we 
only  know  the  Mrork  through  others)  no  quarter 


240  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

circles.  The  latest  books  diminish  this  material, 
and  add  the  quarter  circles,  which  make  it  sym- 
metrical with  the  double  cuts  previously  sug- 
gested in  the  solid  Gifts  and  in  the  tablets 
(usually  12  whole,  18  half,  12  quarter  circles). 
Also  three  sizes,  three, '  two,  and  one  inch  in 
diameter. 

The  ring  suggests  the  return  to  the  ball  of 
which  it  is  an  outline ;  the  periphery  is  seen  as  a 
line  whose  character  is  to  return  into  itself. 
Thus  the  circle  has  not  beginning  or  end,  it  is 
in  a  way  self -limiting  and  hence  has  been  often 
used  as  the  symbol  of  eternity.  The  ring 
with  its  abstraction  from  the  solid  suggests  the 
self-returning  Ego  more  emphatically  than  the 
Sphere,  since  just  this  self -return  is  what  is  ab- 
stracted in  the  circle.  The  straight  line  is  bent 
around  till  it  comes  back  to  itself,  as  it  were,  like 
consciousness.  Mythology  has  seized  upon  the 
circle  and  hinted  its  importance  in  the  earth- 
serpent,  which,  coiling  round  our  globe,  puts  its 
tail  into  its  mouth  and  thus  holds  up  our  terres- 
'trial  sphere.  And  somehow  at  last  it  must  be 
upheld  by  self-determination. 

The  angle,  which  was  such  an  important  ele- 
ment in  the  preceding  Gift  (sticks),  quite  van- 
ishes in  the  circle.  All  angularity  is  trans- 
formed into  roundness,  whereof  the  meaning  is 
hinted  in  the  metaphorical  use  of  the  terms.  The 
line  of  beauty  is  supposed  to  be  a  curve,  though 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.      241 

certainly  the  straight  line  is  also  employed  in  art, 
and  in  morals  the  right  (right-lined)  has  a  better 
name  than  the  crooked  or  devious. 

The  curvilineal  outline  is  more  suitable  for  the 
reproduction  of  vegetable  and  animal  forms. 
Nature  bends  and  turns  and  curves;  the  tree 
rounds  itself  out  in  going  upward  into  the  cylin- 
drical stem,  and  broadens  itself  into  the  round- 
shaped  leaf. 

The  semi-circle  shows  the  circle  divided,  and 
is  not  so  permanent  a  form,  not  so  self-contained 
as  the  circle;  it  participates  in  other  things, 
while  the  circle  produces  the  impression  of  ex- 
clusiveness,  self-sufficiency.  Turn  it  about  and 
it  is  the  same,  or  in  the  same  relation  to  the 
outer  world.  Not  so  the  half -circle,  whose  self- 
including  home  (which  is  the  total  circle), 
has  been  broken  into,  and  the  outside  world 
can  step  in. 

Moreover  from  tip  to  tip  it  suggests  a  straight 
line;  here  the  stick  can  be  added.  So  there  be- 
gins a  union  of  the  curvilinear  and  the  rectilinear, 
which  is  still  further  developed  in  the  quarter 
circles.  Thus  the  circle  and  its  diameter  have 
become  visible,  which  conception  we  started 
with  in  the  sphere. 

Also  letters  of  the  alphabet  and  figures  of 
arithmetic  are  made  by  the  child  from  the  vari- 
ous shapes  of  stick  and  ring  united. 

The  semicircle  we  can  take  from  the  arch  and 


242  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  arc,  both  of  which  we  have  noted  in  the 
Building  Gifts.  Or  we  can  take  it  from  a  divis- 
ion of  the  Cylinder,  which  belongs  to  the  Second 
(Originative)  Gift. 

It  has  been  already  observed  that  the  concen- 
tric rings  are  seeking  the  Point  inward,  which  is 
their  center  and  origin.  They  give  in  outline 
the  Sphere  or  its  periphery,  so  that  the  Point  as 
the  center  of  rotundity  has  now  become  visible, 
explicit,  embodied  —  which  as  implicit  was  the 
starting-point  of  the  Ball.  So  the  concentric  rings 
begin  to  carry  us  back  to  the  beginning  —  which 
movement  is  not  yet  completed,  but  will  be  soon, 
in  the  Point  taken  by  itself. 

We  may  consider  the  circle  (or  ring)  as  an 
outer  self -return,  the  end  visibly  conies  back  to 
the  beginning.  But  this  circle  also  suggests  the 
Point  within,  as  central  and  determining;  this 
Point  will  show  the  inner  and  deeper  self -return 
which  embraces  the  whole  series  of  Gifts,  which, 
however,  must  be  ideal,  though  intimated  to  the 
child  by  these  ordered  sensuous  objects.  This 
Point  suggested  by  the  circle  and  specially  by  the 
concentric  circles,  is  next  to  appear,  taking  on 
visible  shape  for  the  child. 


FKOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.      243 


OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LINE. 

1.  The  first  reflection  which  comes  to  the  kin- 
dergardner  in  reference  to  the  foregoing  sugges- 
tions, pertains  to  the  increase  of  material. 
Already  we  have  been  giving  some  hints  with  an 
eye  to  this  difficulty.  It  is  very  generally  agreed 
that  the  kindergarden  has  now  all  the  material 
it  can  employ  to  advantage.  Still  certain 
changes  must  be  allowed,  if  they  are  made  in  the 
spirit,  not  of  innovation,  but  of  improvement. 
If  we  can  find  a  better  ordering  of  the  material, 
and  a  better  method  of  presenting  it  to  the  child, 
there  will  be  progress.  Attention  may  be  called 
to  the  following  points : — 

(a.)  A  little  increase  of  material  may  be  a 
great  increase  in  clearness  and  genetic  sequence. 
An  additional  block  may  bridge  a  chasm  for  the 
child  and  thus  bring  about  a  great  gain  in  time. 
Hence  we  are  to  consider  carefully  in  what  part 
and  for  what  purpose  any  increase  of  material  is 
made.  A  stone  brought  and  thrown  into  the 
stream  may  enable  us  to  step  over  at  once, 
where  otherwise  we  would  be  detained  for  hours, 
or  brought  to  an  absolute  standstill.  An  in- 
crease of  material  does  not  necessarily  signify, 


244  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

therefore,  an  increase  of  work,  but  may  mean  a 
decided  diminution  of  it. 

(6.)  There  needs  to  be  no  increase  of  material. 
The  primary  and  essential  derivation  of  surfaces 
and  lines  must  always  have  representative  forms, 
but  the  secondary  and  less  essential  derivation 
(for  instance,  the  division  into  quarters  and 
eighths)  can  be  indicated  at  times  in  a  simple 
suggestion  (say,  by  means  of  drawing,  paper- 
cutting,  or  paper-folding).  Still  the  primary 
derivation  must  have  all  the  qualities  above 
given :  it  must  be  direct,  complete,  symmetrical. 

In  this  manner,  the  material  of  surfaces  and 
lines  becomes,  in  a  degree,  elastic;  it  can  be 
increased  or  diminished,  without  impairing  the 
genetic  process  of  the  Gifts.  And  we  must  recall 
that  a  large  portion  of  this  material  was  origi- 
nally made  by  the  kindergardner  —  a  condition 
of  things  which  has  its  decided  advantages  over 
the  manufactured  material  of  the  present  time. 
Though  we  cannot  go  back  to  that  condition,  we 
may  seek  to  restore  some' of  those  advantages. 

(c.)  Even  if  the  material  be  increased,  the 
child  learns  to  employ  it  far  more  quickly  and 
easily  when  he  has  before  himself  the  total 
derivation,  than  when  it  is  given  to  him  hap- 
hazard and  in  fragments.  When  the  genetic 
thread  is  clear,  consecutive,  and  whole,  the 
quantity  of  material  makes  not  so  much  differ- 
ence, he  can  string  it  all  on  the  thread. 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— TEE  LINE.      245 

The  great  saving  to  be  made  is  in  time  and 
effort,  and  in  the  avoidance  of  mental  confusion. 
Now  if  the  genetic  thread  be  broken,  or  dis- 
located, a  small  quantity  of  material  will  soon 
become  burdensome  and  confusing. 

The  main  educative  object  of  the  Gifts  is  the 
genesis,  the  derivation,  which  is  the  child's  own 
creativity  realized  in  things  which  he  sees  and 
with  which  he  plays.  If  he  be  truly  the  child  of 
the  Creator,  he  must  be  able  to  create  after  his 
divine  Parent;  in  fact,  he  must  play  creation, 
even  the  Creation  of  the  Universe,  after  the 
original  divine  fiat. 

2.  The  so-called  Jointed  Slat  is  a  line  and  thus 
belongs  under  the  present  caption.  The  Slat  is 
essentially  a  stick,  though  it  is  sometimes  thought 
to  be  a  transitional  form  between  a  surface  and  a 
line,  on  account  of  its  breadth.  But  its  essence 
is  linear,  the  breadth  is  employed  simply  as  a 
convenience  for  making  the  joint,  in  which  lies 
the  especial  characteristic  of  this  kind  of  line. 

The  Jointed  Slat,  therefore,  has  the  point  of 
intersection  fixed,  yet  axial;  thus  the  variable 
angle  as  well  as  its  movable  sides  are  made 
visible.  The  sticks  now  lay  themselves,  so  to 
speak,  they  make  their  own  angles  and  figures, 
the  outer  inpact  being  given.  The  Jointed  Slat 
thus  suggests  the  axial  nature  of  the  Point,  or  the 
Point  as  turning-point  when  taken  by  itself.  Such 
is  the  prophesy  here,  which  is  soon  to  be  fulfilled. 


246  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

3.  The  Thread-game  may  also  to  be  introduced 
in  this  connection,  as  it  is  based  upon  the  line. 
There  are  several  kinds  of  Thread-games;  the 
chief  one  is  the  making  of  the  outline  of  forms 
by  means  of  a  wet  thread  moved  by  the  finger  on 
a  surface.  The  pliability  of  the  thread  is  the 
property  which  mainly  comes  into  play ;  this  use 
of  an  inner  property  suggests  the  Occupations, 
but  as  the  thread  is  manipulated  by  the  hand 
without  an  implement,  this  game  may  be  still 
regarded  as  a  Gift.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
forms  of  the  wet  thread  are  not  given  to  the 
child  and  these  combined,  but  are  made  by  him; 
this  fact  again  brings  the  game  into  touch  with 
the  Occupations. 

The  Thread-game  has  no  fixed  point,  but  is  a 
line  pliable  at  every  point,  wherein  lies  its  con- 
trast with  the  Jointed  Slat.  Thus  the  axis  is 
movable  as  well  as  the  line,  the  joint  is  any- 
where, and  the  line  follows.  The  rigidity  of  the 
stick  and  ring  is  now  broken  at  every  point,  and 
the  line  in  its  material  representative  has  become 
absolutely  flexible,  yielding,  responsive ;  it  is 
ready  to  be  straight  or  curved  or  both  together. 
In  fact,  other  forms  now  begin  to  come  to  light, 

o  o        7 

hitherto  not  possible,  such  as  the  oval,  and  even 
the  spiral. 

It  is  manifest  that  in  the  thread  the  line  has 
attained  a  considerable  degree  of  freedom  within 
itself.  At  first  the  line  was  a  liberation  from 


FBOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.      247 

matter  and  then  from  the  surface.  Still  it  was 
rigid  in  the  sticks  and  rings  —  which  was  a  kind 
of  unfreedom.  This  movement  toward  freedom 
inside  the  line  itself  through  various  plays  we 
may  briefly  designate  as  follows :  — 

(a.)  The  simple  stick  (straight,  round,  con- 
centric), separate  by  itself,  yet  fixed  within 
itself  at  every  point,  or  at  most  a  little  flexible. 
These  sticks  produce  forms  from  an  outside  force 
wholly,  applied  to  each  stick. 

(6.)  The  jointed  stick,  fixed  at  one  point  on 
which  it  turns ;  or  several  sticks  fixed  together 
at  several  points.  These  sticks  produce  forms 
from  the  inside,  from  the  fixed  point,  though  the 
starting  force  comes  from  the  outside. 

(c.)  The  flexible  thread,  which  is  aline  with 
an  axis  at  every  point ;  thus  line  and  point  are 
movable,  and  in  this  sense  free.  The  forms  are 
produced  from  the  inside,  not,  however,  from 
the  fixed  point,  but  from  the  movable  point 
shifting  anywhere  along  the  line. 

Thus  we  may  trace  a  movement  in  these  three 
plays  with  the  line  from  an  outer  to  an  inner 
freedom,  from  the  line  as  externally  determined 
to  a  condition  of  internal  determination.  On 
account  of  this  last  fact,  the  wet  thread  seems 
to  the  child  to  make  figures  which  have  life  and 
wriggle  and  crawl.  Popular  belief  affirms  that  a 
horse-hair  thrown  into  water  becomes  alive  and 
turns  to  a  snake. 


248  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

4.  All  stick-laying,  on  account  of  its  produc- 
ing line  and  outline  so  distinctly  to  the  eye,  may 
be  considered  a  kind  of  drawing,  and  so  on  this 
side  the  present  Gift  (or  Gifts)  approaches  the 
Occupations.     Especially  the  Thread-game,   by 
means   of   its   free-moving    outline,  lends  itself 
easily   to    a  rude  kind  of    picture-making,  and 
thus  is  very  interesting  to  the  child,  who  sees 
the  forms  growing,  as  it  were,  beneath  his  fingers. 
The   ends  of   the  thread  being  joined  together, 
and  the  whole  thread  moistened  and  laid  upon  a 
surface,  any  change  in  its  outline  produces  a  new 
shape.     We  may  also  see  in  this  play  of  thread- 
forms  how  the  Point  as  axial  moves  out  of  itself, 
how  it  is  in  a  sense  self -moving  or  self -separating, 
and  projects  itself  into  a  line  —  a  thought  which 
we  shall  find  to  be  fundamental  when  we  come 
to  the  Point.     Indeed  we  may  behold  a  transition 
here  from  the  Line  to  the  Point. 

5 .  We  may  again  emphasize  the  fact  that  con- 
centrism  in  the  Gifts  of  Froebel  first  appeared 
in  the  Line,  specially  in  the  rings.    In  fact,  con- 
centric rings,  are  often  seen   in  nature,  for  in- 
stance in  water,  in  certain  stones,  in  the  phenom- 
ena of  the  sky,  and  in  the  vegetable  kingdom. 
Annular  shapes  and  outlines  are  also  very  com- 
mon in  art,  particularly  in  decoration. 

But  in  the  present  exposition  we  have  applied 
the  term  concentrisni,  not  only  to  the  line,  but 
also  to  the  surface  and  likewise  to  the  solid. 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  LINE.      249 

Such  an  application  of  the  term  extends  its  usage, 
and  causes  some  difficulty  at  first.  Therefore  it 
is  well  for  the  student  to  remember  the  follow- 
ing items  in  this  matter : — 

(a.)  Concentrism  is  applied  to  straight  lined 
figures  (for  instance,  the  square  and  the  cube) 
as  well  as  to  curved  figures. 

(6.)  It  is  applied  to  the  spherical  surf  ace  as 
well  as  to  the  flat  surface. 

(c.)  It  is  applied  to  the  forms  of  Concrete  as 
well  as  of  Abstract  Magnitude  —  solids,  surfaces, 
and  lines. 

(c?.)  The  ring  within  the  ring  is  the  plainest 
and  probably  the  primary  usage  of  concentrism. 
But  from  this  its  first  and  simplest  application  it 
passes  to  embracing  quite  all  the  Gifts  in  its 
sweep. 

So  much  in  regard  to  the  use  of  the  word.  In 
regard  to  principle  of  concentrism  and  its  place 
in  a  complete  ordering  of  the  kindergarden 
Gifts,  we  have  already  spoken  sufficiently. 

6.  We  have  already  alluded  to  the  import  of 
the  Line  in  its  ethical  aspect  (see  the  discussion 
under  the  head  of  the  Curvilineal  Gifts ) .  Lan- 
guage picks  up  the  Line  and  applies  it  metaphori- 
cally to  human  conduct.  We  have  to  think, 
accordingly,  that  there  is  a  moral  suggestiveness 
and  hence  moral  training  in  the  Line  for  the 
child.  In  the  history  of  the  race,  man  seems  to 
make  the  abstraction  of  the  Line  when  he  makes 


250  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  abstraction  of  the  virtues,  and  names  a  num- 
ber of  the  latter  after  the  Line,  which  thus  ap- 
pears to  him  an  outer  sensuous  representation  of 
inner  character. 

In  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude  we  have 
anticipated  the  Line,  making  it  the  basis  of  the 
important  distinction  into  rectilineal  and  curvi- 
lineal.  Thus  the  Line  has  already  shown  itself 
a  governing  principle  in  the  ordering  of  solids. 
And  hereafter  in  the  industrial  occupations  AVC 
shall  see  the  Line  manifest  the  same  power.  It 
will  divide  and  then  unite  things ;  it  will  limit 
and  hence  form  figures ;  it  will  enter  into  matter 
and  transform  the  same,  along  with  the  other 
elements  of  Abstract  Magnitude  (surface  and 
point). 

7.  Already  the  Line  has,  in  a  number  of  ways, 
been  calling  to,  or,  if  you  please,  pointing  to 
the  Point  as  its  source,  origin,  cause.  The 
beginning  and  end  of  the  Line  are  in  the  Point, 
which  is  thus  its  Alpha  and  Omega,  whence  it 
cometh  and  whither  it  goeth .  In  the  Thread-game 
the  Line  revealed  the  Point  as  its  axis.  In 
the  concentric  rings  the  movement  is  from  and 
to  the  Point  as  the  central  source.  So  we  may 
see  the  Line  ever  suggesting  and  indeed  return- 
ing to  its  origin  —  the  Point. 

The  Line,  accordingly,  forces  us  to  the  Point, 
literally  and  metaphorically.  To  the  Point, 
then,  we  go. 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      251 


THE  POINT. 

This  is  usually  numbered  as  the  Tenth  Gift 
and  is  the  last  of  the  Quantitative  Gifts.  The 
Point  has  its  difficulty,  owing  to  the  obvious  con- 
tradictory elements  in  its  conception.  It  is  the 
abstraction  from  all  Magnitude,  yet  it  is  a  prin- 
ciple of  Magnitude  just  in  such  abstraction ;  it  is 
the  negative  of  all  space  yet  is  spatial  just  in 
its  negation ;  it  is  the  annulment  of  all  the 
dimensions,  yet  somehow  remains  a  dimension, 
and  the  most  important  one ;  it  is  the  end  and 
winding  up  of  all  the  Quantitative  Gifts  just 
through  its  undoing  of  Quantity ;  still  we  have 
to  consider  it  a  true  Quantitative  Gift. 

Such  are  some  of  the  points  which  set  the 
brain  to  whizzing  about  the  Point.  We  must 
consider  this  to  be  not  a  dead  Point,  but  active, 
yea  self -active  in  a  sense ;  it  is  axial,  turns  on 
itself,  and  hence  can  return;  it  is  indeed  the 
Point  of  Return,  moving  out  of  the  Abstract  to 
the  Concrete,  and  still  further  sweeping  back  to 
the  beginning,  to  that  initial  central  Point  of  the 
Sphere  out  of  which  all  the  Gifts  have  been 
unfolded. 

From    these  statements  the  fundamental  fact 


252  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

concerning  the  Point  begins,  we  hope,  its  dawn- 
ing :  it  is  a  thought,  and  hence  endowed  with  the 
creative  power  of  thought,  of  the  Ego  itself,  of 
which  it  is  an  externalized  representative. 

So  we  have  come  to  the  final  Gift  of  Abstract 
Magnitude,  the  Point,  which  abstracts  from  all 
three  dimensions  —  length,  breadth,  and  thick- 
ness. "What  is  left?  It  would  seem  to  be  mere 
nothing  and  in  one  sense  it  is ;  there  is  no  longer  , 
any  outer  extended  space,  even  in  the  form  of  a 
line;  all  extension  is  negated,  and  the  extensive 
or  quantitative  Gifts  have  reached  their  conclu- 
sion in  the  Point. 

Still  there  is  something  left,  some  result,  and 
that  is  just  this  act  of  abstraction,  which  is  now 
to  be  projected  into  externality.  The  Point  is 
the  abstract  negative  power  of  the  Ego  exter- 
nalized, it  is  the  Ego's  mastery  over  space  made 
spatial.  That  is,  starting  with  the  Point  the  Ego 
begins  to  re-construct  space  out  of  itself,  deter- 
mining it  by  Point,  Line,  and  Plane,  which  are  its 
own ;  it  makes  over  space  just  as  it  makes  over 
matter,  it  produces  in  space  the  form  or  the 
mould  into  which  it  is  going  to  pour  the  material 
world.  The  Point  is  really  subjective,  the  Point 
of  the  Ego,  which  has  just  this  separating  power 
within  itself  and  self -projection  into  an  object. 

In  the  Point,  therefore,  Abstract  Magnitude 
has  abstracted  from  all  Magnitude,  from  all 
extension,  for  the  Point  has  no  Magnitude,  no 


FBOEBEUS  PL  Ay  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      253 

extension  —  no  length,  breadth,  or  thickness. 
Yet  the  Point  has  position,  it  is  said;  it  is  posi- 
tive, not  negative,  or  not  wholly  so ;  what  is  this 
positive  element  in  it?  Inasmuch  as  it  is  the 
active,  negative  might  which  overcomes  space, 
it  must  have  the  positive  mastery  over  space ; 
the  Point  is  the  primordial  space-controller, 
the  creative  starting-place  of  form.  In  this 
connection  we  may  note  that  the  Gifts  begin 
with  the  Ball  and  the  Ball  is  determined  by  an 
inner  central  Point,  out  of  which  with  the  dia- 
metral Line  is  generated  this  whole  movement  of 
Play-gifts. 

The  Point  has  existence,  accordingly,  in  the 
Ego  primarily  as  space-negating,  and  hence  as 
space-controlling.  It  is  the  turning-point  of  the 
Gifts,  turning  them  back  to  the  beginning,  and 
hence  bringing  about  the  return  or  the  third 
stage  of  the  Psychosis  of  the  Gifts ;  but  it  is  also 
the  turning-point  forwards,  carrying  the  Gifts 
over  into  the  Occupations  through  its  generative 
or  reproductive  energy. 

We  noticed  the  freedom  of  the  Line  through 
being  abstracted  from  surface  and  solid.  In  like 
manner  the  Point  has  become  free,  movable,  no 
longer  fixed  as  it  was  in  the  angle  of  a  triangle 
or  in  the  corner  of  a  cube. 

But  the  freedom  of  the  Point  is  different  from 
that  of  the  Line,  being  free  of  spatial  length, 
which  still  incumbers  the  latter  in  image  or  idea. 


254  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

The  Line  is  still  stiff,  so  to  speak,  having  many 
points  infixed  relation  to  one  another.  But  now 
even  this  fixity  of  the  Line  is  dissolved  into 
its  elements;  the  remaining  principle  of  exten- 
sion, which  is  length,  vanishes  into  the  Point, 
which  is  the  complete  abstraction  from  all  space 
or  extension. 

There  is  a  kind  of  history  of  this  liberation  of 
the  Point,  as  there  was  of  the  Line.  The  Point, 
too,  was  enslaved,  imprisoned,  enchained  pri- 
marily in  the  very  heart  of  the  Ball,  where  it  lay 
in  its  dark  dungeon,  held  fast  even  in  the  Line 
between  two  radii.  Then  came  its  first  seeing  of 
the  light  of  heaven  when  it  issued  forth  as  the 
corner  of  the  Cube,  though  still  involved  in  and 
weighed  down  by  matter.  A  new  release  it  was 
when  made  into  the  ideal  angle  of  some  line- 
bounded  surface,  till  now  it  has  escaped  even 
from  this  last  thralldom,  and  is  free  and  inde- 
pendent in  its  own  right.  Or  we  may  regard  these 
as  the  stages  of  its  birth,  for  as  it  lies  in  the  Ball 
it  is  the  child  yet  unborn,  which  is  to  come  into 
daylight  and  grow  up  into  independence,  becom- 
ing a  free  individual.  An  individual,  literally 
that  which  cannot  be  divided,  hence  not  spatial, 
not  extended,  a,  true  unit,  "  one  and  indivisible." 

We  see  that  the  Point  breaks  up  form,  spe- 
cially geometric  form,  being  spatial.  Through 
the  abstraction  from  all  three  dimensions  — 
length,  breadth,  height — the  outward  shape 


FEOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      255 

vanishes  into  the  Point.  But  the  Point  as  just 
this  abstraction  from  all  the  dimensions,  is  itself 
a  dimension,  a  new  dimension  which  is  master 
over  the  former  dimensions  which  belonged  to 
extension.  What  is  this  new  dimension  which  is 
the  dimension  (or  measurer)  of  the  three  dimen- 
sions? It  is  number,  and  so  with  the  conception 
of  the  Point  we  begin  to  count,  count  one,  the 
individual  unit  as  distinct  from  any  form  of  ex- 
tension. Thus  Geometry  passes  into  and  is 
determined  by  Arithmetic;  Form  vanishes  into 
and  is  measured  by  Number.  Fundamentally  we 
count  by  Points ;  objects  numbered  are  mentally 
converted  into  Points. 

Here  we  may  add  a  word  about  counting, 
which  we  have  had  hitherto  in  connection  with 
Solids  and  Lines,  that  is,  in  connection  with 
objects.  But  counting  also  is  to  declare  its  inde- 
pendence and  to  be  free,  free  as  the  Point,  in  its 
separation  from  all  material  things.  Hence  it 
comes  that  abstract  counting  properly  begins 
with  the  Point,  begins  in  its  own  right,  no  longer 
bound  to  a  Cube  or  a  Line.  Thus  the  passage 
from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract  receives  a  great 
advance  when  number  begins  to  be  abstracted 
from  its  material  substrate  and  to  be  grasped  by 
the  child  as  it  is  in  itself. 

Still  at  first  the  child  has  to  count  Points, 
which  must  be  made  visible.  Hence  it  conies 
that  the  Point,  this  complete  abstraction  of  all 


256  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

body,  must  itself  be  re-embodied  for  the  child. 
The  Point,  whose  essence  is  the  taking  away  of 
all  material  form,  must  be  given  a  material  form. 
The  abstract  must  be  made  real,  the  ideal  must 
be  re-incarnated.  The  child  has  had  the  Point 
from  the  beginning,  in  Ball,  Cube,  Surface, 
Line,  but  not  fully  explicit,  held  fast  in  some- 
thing alien  to  itself.  But  now  it  is  abstracted, 
separated,  self -included ;  yet  just  as  this  act  of 
abstraction  it  must  be  endowed  with  a  form. 
Here  we  again  note  the  same  process  which  we 
have  found  in  all  Abstract  Magnitude:  first  the 
concrete  object  in  which  the  Point  is  implicit ; 
second,  the  abstraction  of  the  Point;  third,  the 
return  to  the  concrete  object  for  the  re-embodi- 
ment of  the  Point. 

But  what  material  shall  be  taken  for  such 
re-embodinient  ?  Various  small  objects  have  been 
suggested,  pebbles,  shells,  bits  of  wood,  cork, 
clay ;  but  a  seed  of  some  sort,  such  as  a  bean  or 
lentil,  contains  the  best  suggestion  of  the  Point. 
For  the  seed  is  that  central  germ  which  unfolds 
into  a  large  line,  such  as  the  trunk  of  a  tree ; 
yea  into  a  thousand  lesser  lines  seen  in  root, 
branch,  stem.  Still  further,  it  unfolds  into  the 
surface  in  the  bark,  or  a  thousand  surfaces  in  the 
leaves  —  all  of  which  are  bringing  forth  the  total 
solid,  the  vegetable  as  a  whole.  Finally  in  a 
self -returning  cycle  of  time,  usually  the  year,  the 
seed  too  returns  into  itself,  reproducing  itself  in 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      2o7 

a  thousand  seeds  possibly,  and  so  completes  its 
own  genetic  cycle. 

In  like  manner  the  Point,  starting  as  a  germ 
implicit  in  the  Sphere,  unfolds  through  all  the 
Gifts  until  it  reaches  itself  again,  being  now 
explicit  in  the  Point  of  Abstract  Magnitude. 
Such  is  the  suggestion  of  the  seed,  and  this  very 
seed  ought  to  be  planted  by  the  child,  in  a  box 
of  earth  if  no  other  way  is  possible,  and  thus 
made  a  part  of  that  garden-work  which  belongs 
to  the  kindergarden  and  gave  to  it  originally  its 
name.  Thereby  Nature  will  be  felt  to  be  one  and 
harmonious,  showing  even  in  her  vegetable  pro- 
cess a  deep  correspondence  with  the  movement 
of  these  Gifts,  though  they  be  only  spatial, 
quantitative,  and  not  of  life. 

The  Point  must,  therefore,  be  declared  to  be  a 
most  important  matter;  its  conception  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  the  comprehension  of  the 
complete  genetic  movement  of  these  Gifts.  In 
fact,  the  genetic  conception  itself  is  embodied  in 
the  Point,  which  must  at  last  be  seized  not  merely 
as  negative,  but  as  positive  and  productive. 
For  this  reason  it  is  the  starting-point  and  the 
returning-point  of  the  Gifts  as  well  as  the  transi- 
tion-point to  the  Occupations.  Thus  it  is  the 
pivot,  and  may  be  called  distinctively  the  pivotal 
Gift. 

The  concentric  element  in  surfaces  and  in  lines 
vanishes  in  the  Point,  toward  which  they  seem 

17 


268  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

to  move  as  toward  their  source.  They  suggest 
the  center  for  which  they  are  seeking.  So  all 
matter,  whatever  be  its  form,  manifests  a  seeking 
of  the  center,  being  outside  of  the  same ;  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth  the  material  object  falls  in 
a  right  line  toward  the  center  by  gravitation ;  but 
in  the  free  motion  of  the  heavenly  bodies  are 
produced  circles  or  ellipses  round  the  center, 
analogous  to  these  embodied  concentric  rings 
roulnd  the  Point.  In  the  case  of  the  planet 
Saturn,  concentric  rings  become  visible  encircling 
the  body  of  the  planet  itself. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  concentric  rings  and 
sphere-shells  suggest  the  movement  outward 
from  the  Point  or  the  creative  center,  in  a  series 
of  successive  circling  waves,  like  those  which 
flow  from  a  pebble  thrown  into  the  placid  surface 
of  a  lake.  Or  we  may  call  up  the  vegetable 
world  in  one  of  its  great  divisions  (the  exogens) 
represented  in  the  tree  and  its  circling  layers  of 
wood  telling  of  the  circling  years  which  have 
revolved  round  that  plant  as  a  living  center  and 
left  behind  upon  it  these  memorials  of  their  own 
concentric  nature,  which  flings  all  passing  time, 
and  therewith  all  eternity,  into  cycles,  the 
so-called  cycles  of  the  ages. 

Thus  we  have  found  the  Point  to  be  active 
within  itself,  to  have  its  own  inner  separation  and 
self -projection,  whereby  not  only  the  Point  but 
the  whole  series  of  Quantitative  Gifts  make  a 


FEOEBEVS  PLAY' GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      269 

grand  turn  in  their  career,  which  is  veritably  the 
return.  This  will  bring  out  also  a  new  phase  of 
concentrism,  the  inner  or  spiritual  one,  which 
will  reveal  all  these  Gifts  returning  through  the 
Point  toward  their  fountain-head  in  a  succession 
of  concentric  cycles,  till  they  reach  their  central 
genetic  source,  which  is  likewise  a  Point.  Thus 
the  outer  concentrism  with  which  we  started  in 
the  Sphere,  has  become  an  inner  one,  and  therein 
has  profoundly  justified  itself  as  an  element  of 
these  Gifts.  The  symbol  has  deepened  itself 
into  the  thing  symbolized,  that  which  was  given 
outwardly  in  a  material  object  to  the  senses, 
is  turning  inward  and  is  being  transformed 
into  the  fundamental  and  the  final  spiritual  fact 
of  the  entire  process  through  which  we  have 
traveled. 

So  much  by  way  of  anticipation,  for  this 
phase  of  concentrism  is  something  not  yet  fully 
unfolded.  We  must  now  grasp  the  Point  as 
active,  yea  as  self -active  in  a  sense,  as  turning  on 
itself  and  henceforth  developing  out  of  itself. 
Thus  we  pass  to  the  following : 

II.  THE  ACTIVE  OR  INTERNAL  SEPARATION  OF 
ABSTRACT  MAGNITUDES.  If  the  reader  will  look 
back  to  the  Simple  Separation  of  Abstract  Mag- 
nitudes, the  caption  corresponding  to  the  present 
one  will  be  found,  and  the  psychical  connection 
will  be  suggested.  Separation,  there  passive  and 


260  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

external,  is  here  active,  beginning  with  the  Point, 
which  carries  its  own  inner,  self -separating 
energy  over  into  Line  and  Surface.  Here  we 
reach  the  axis,  the  pivot,  the  Point  as  turning- 
point. 

The  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude  have,  accord- 
ingly, been  unfolded  in  their  simply  immediate 
separation — Surface,  Line,  Point.  The  pre- 
ceding exposition  has  sought  to  give  each  of 
thes'e  elements  its  distinctive  character.  The 
outcome  is  the  Point,  already  emphasized  as  the 
turning-point  of  the  whole  series  of  Quantitative 
Gifts;  that  is,  the  point  where  they  begin  to 
turn  back  to  their  starting-point. 

Such  is  the  first  stage  of  the  Psychosis  of  Ab- 
stract Magnitude,  that  of  simple  separation,  or 
the  immediate  abstraction  from  the  solid  form 
previously  given.  But  now  we  are  to  see  this 
separation  as  active  within  itself,  beginning  with 
the  Point  as  self -separating,  and  not  separated 
from  the  outside,  for  instance,  from  length, 
breadth,  or  height  (or  thickness).  This  is  the 
second  stage  of  the  Psychosis  in  the  present 
sphere,  inasmuch  as  that  which  was  externall;y 
separated  in  the  previous  stage,  now  separates 
itself  internally  and  becomes  creative.  The  fol- 
lowing will  be  the  triple  process : — - 

1.  The  Point  as  self -separating. 

2.  From  Point  to  Line. 

3.  From  Line  to  Surface. 


FKOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      261 

Thus  the  Point  is  axial,  divides  within  and 
projects  itself  into  the  Line,  which,  gifted  with 
the  creative  nature  of  its  parent,  the  Point,  be- 
comes also  reproductive  at  every  point  and 
moves  forth  into  the  Surface,  which  in  its  turn 
will  show  the  same  creative  energy.  That  is, 
both  Line  and  Surface,  being  now  generated  of 
the  Point,  will  inherit  the  latter's  genetic  power, 
and  continue  its  process  into  the  creation  of  the 
solid. 

1.  The  Point  must  first  be  grasped  as  self- 
dividing,  negating  its  negative  nature  manifested 
in  its  negation  of  space,  and  becoming  positive 
or  having  position  in  space.  The  conception  of 
the  Point  requires  that  it  turn  on  its  own  axis ; 
it  is  not  a  fixed,  not  a  crystallized  Point  in 
thought;  it  is  genetic,  and  first  of  all,  self- 
genetic. 

This  is  a  difficult  part  of  the  subject  and 
we  may  look  at  the  Point  again  as  the  negation 
of  length,  breadth,  and  thickness,  or  of  all  three 
dimensions.  Hence  it  is  the  extreme  of  abstrac- 
tion in  the  present  sphere.  But  the  Point,  as 
having  this  negative  energy  which  cancels  all 
extension,  be  it  Space,  Time,  or  Matter,  must 
show  its  own  inherent  character,  and  so  cancels 
itself  as  Point.  That  is,  it  must  turn  on  itself 
as  Point,  projecting  itself  from  itself  and  creating 
the  Line.  Thus  it  is  genetic,  and  will  proceed 
to  reproduce  all  the  Abstract  Magnitudes  and 


262  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

then  will  pass  to  the  Concrete.  The  result  of 
its  negative  act  cannot  be  mere  nothingness, 
since  its  own  destructive  nature  was  that  which 
was  canceled.  The  immanent  activity  of  the 
Point  is  that  which  makes  it  overcome  itself  and 
eject  itself  into  a  Line,  continuing  from  the  Line 
its  genetic  power  till  it  reaches  the  solid. 

2.  The   Point    separating    within    itself   and 
moving  to  another  Point,  produces  the  Line,  into 
which  the  Point  vanishes,  as  it  were.     The  child 
lays  a  seed  alongside  another  seed,  repeats  the  act, 
and  finds  that  it  has  a  new  element,  the  Line, 
which  is  the  Point  externalizing  itself,  or  making 
the  separation  outside  (between  two  Points)  and 
not  inside  (as  in  the  first   stage).     Hence   this 
is  explicitly  the  separative  stage. 

Point-laying,  which  produces  the  Line,  is  even 
more  significant  than  stick-laying,  inasmuch  as 
the  Line  is  given  already  in  stick-laying,  which 
is  simply  external  combination.  Here  again  we 
note  the  reproductive  idea,  implicit  as  yet,  but 
which  is  to  be  made  explicit  in  the  Occupations, 
for  instance  in  dotting,  pricking,  sewing,  etc. 

3.  The  Line,  in  general,  moves  into  the  Sur- 
face, having  the  same  genetic  power  as  the  Point 
from  which  it  is  derived.     The  Line  of  seeds 
easily  returns  into  itself   and  suggests  the  Sur- 
face by  the  outline  which  results. 

Thus  the  Point  has  unfolded,  having  pro- 
jected itself  through  the  Line  back  into  the  Sur- 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      263 

face,  which  we  recollect,  was  the  first  abstraction 
in  the  process  of  Abstract  Magnitude,  whose  end 
was  the  simple  Point.  But  this  Point  has  now 
come  back  to  the  Surface,  has  really  produced  it ; 
yet  the  Surface,  as  already  set  forth,  ended  in 
the  Point.  So  this  last  Surface  has  in  it  the  re- 
turn to  the  Point,  which  is  taken  up  into  it  and 
makes  it  active,  creative.  That  is,  the  Surface 
must  now  become  self-separating  like  the  Point, 
and  project  itself  into  the  solid. 

Though  we  embody  the  Point,,  ultimately  we 
cannot  behold  it  in  vision,  nor  even  image  it. 
But  we  can  image  the  Line  as  extended  in  space, 
or  the  activity  of  the"  Point  moving  into  the  Line. 
But  the  Point  as  such  is  just  the  negation  of  this 
extension.  What  then  are  we  to  do?  We  have 
to  think  the  Point,  not  being  able  to  perceive  it 
or  to  image  it ;  we  must  create  it  within  by  an 
act  of  thought,  which  is  itself  genetic.  So  we 
have  to  create  the  Point  and  then  make  it  creative, 
so  that  of  itself  it  moves  out  of  itself  and  creates 
the  Line. 

Thus  the  Point  is  subjective,  is  our  own, 
filled  with  the  creativity  of  the  Ego,  which  can 
negate  all  extension  or  externality,  yet  external- 
izes this  very  act.  Hence  the  Point  is  said  to 
have  position,  which  cannot  mean  that  it  has  a 
real  place  or  locality  in  space,  but  is  simply  the 
act  of  negating  all  externalty  made  external  — 
all  of  which  can  only  be  the  work  of  the  Ego. 


264  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

So  the  Ego  may  for  the  nonce  be  deemed  a  Point 
which  is  self-active,  self -separating,  projecting 
itself  into  another  Point  which  is  itself  as  object. 
We  have  now  reached  the  Surface  as  created, 
being  the  product  of  the  Point,  wherewith  this 
second  stage  of  the  present  process  is  brought  to 
a  conclusion.  But  the  Surface  is  not  merely 
created,  but  also  creative,  having  in  itself  the 
genetic  energy  of  the  Point,  its  origin.  This, 
however,  constitutes  a  new  departure. 

III.  THE  KETURN  TO  THE  SURFACE  PRODUCING 
THE  SOLID.  —  We  must  here  distinguish  between 
the  Surface  as  the  product  of  the  Point,  and  the 
Surface  as  producing  Concrete  Magnitude,  thus 
moving  out  of  Abstract  Magnitude. 

When  we  reach  the  Surface  it  is  manifest  that 
we  have  returned  to  the  beginning  of  the  Gifts 
of  Abstract  Magnitude.  This  return  completes 
the  psychical  movement  of  the  present  stage 
(Abstract  Magnitude),  which  has  shown  its 
triple  process.  The  Point  (Tenth  Gift)  returns 
and  connects  with  the  Surface  (Seventh  Gift). 

But  the  Surface  now  reached  is  no  longer  the 
first  immediate  Surface  with  which  we  started, 
when  it  was  obtained  by  simple  separation  or 
abstraction.  It  has  within  itself  the  genetic 
element  won  by  the  Point,  from  which  it  has 
been  produced  by  an  inward  process.  So  it  must 
proceed  at  once  to  bring  forth  the  Solid,  for  the 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      265 

Surface  now  lias  the  Point  within  itself  as  self- 
separating,  and  thus  projects  itself  out  of  the 
abstract  into  the  concrete. 

We  may  note  in  the  present  connection  that 
the  three  dimensions  have  been  reproduced  from 
the  Point,  which  first  unfolded  into  the  Line 
(length),  then  this  Line  unfolded  into  Surface 
(length  and  breadth),  and  finally  this  Surface 
has  unfolded  into  the  Solid  (length,  breadth, 
and  thickness). 

The  child  will  easily  and  of  himself  play  this 
transition  from  Surface  to  Solid.  He  will  make 
a  fence  out  of  his  sticks  for  holding  his  seeds, 
as  a  farmer  makes  a  bin  for  his  wheat  or  potatoes. 
Or  he  may  pile  up  his  seeds,  transforming  the 
Surface  into  the  Solid.  He  can  thus  construct  a 
Cube  or  cuboidal  figure,  and  suggest  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Building  Gifts. 

But  having  gone  back  to  the  Solid,  it  is  mani- 
fest that  we  have  moved  out  of  the  Gifts  of  Ab- 
stract Magnitude.  They  took  for  granted  the 
Solid,  from  which  they  were  abstracted;  but 
having  swept  onward  to  the  Point,  they  whirled 
about  and  have  produced  the  Solid  which  was 
their  pre-supposition  in  the  first  place. 

Looking  back  at  the  Gifts  of  Abstract  Mag- 
nitude, we  note  the  Psychosis.  First  was  the 
simple,  passive  separation  from  the  outside,  yet 
by  the  mind ;  second  was  the  inner  separation, 
which  gave  movement,  and  showed  the  active 


206  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

separation;  third  is  the  return  to  the  Surface, 
the  first  abstraction,  yet  now  through  the  Point, 
and  Avith  the  creativity  of  the  Point,  which  gen- 
etically passes  to  the  Solid,  the  next  matter  to 
be  considered. 

C.  FROM  ABSTRACT  BACK  TO  CONCRETE  MAG- 
NITUDE.—  When  the  Surface  has  moved  into  the 
Solid,  we  have  returned  to  the  Cube,  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Building  Gifts.  This  means  that  we 
have  really  produced  the  Derived  Gifts,  which 
start  with  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude. 
From  the  Point  we  have  derived  Derivation, 
through  the  genetic  movement  already  mentioned. 

The  previous  process  of  abstraction  was  the 
mental  separation  of  Surface,  Line,.  Point,  from 
the  given  Solid,  but  now  we  have  returned  from 
the  Point,  which  we  have  found  to  be  the  central 
creative  principle,  and  we  have  produced  the 
Solid,  with  which  the  start  was  made. 

Froebel  repeatedly  puts  stress  upon  this  return 
from  the  Point.  The  Solid  has  been  "  separated 
into  Surface,  Line  and  Point,  which  is  its  com- 
plete dissolution,"  yet  this  dissolution  is  not 
destruction  but  rather  "the  spiritualization  of 
the  material  body,"  which  must  be  the  beginning 
of  its  genetic  power.  For  this  whole  movement 
is  like  "  the  development  of  a  tree  out  of  the 
seed  into  trunk,  branch,  twig,  leaf,  flower,  pistil 
and  pollen,"  which  last  is  the  division  to  very 


FROEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      267 

powder,  yet  also  the  beginning  of  the  return,  of 
the  generative  process.  "  Hence  we  must  now 
in  the  opposite  yet  like  manner  go  back  to  the 
first  unity  by  bringing  together  and  unifying  ' ' 
what  has  before  been  given  in  separation. 
(Lange,  II.  575;  Miss  Jai-vis,  II.  333.) 

In  the  same  passage  Froebel  gives  an  illustra- 
tion of  how  this  transition  from  extreme  division 
and  separation  back  to  collection  and  unification 
may  be  shown.  The  child  sticks  pins  in  a  pin- 
cushion, whereby  he  finds  the  Points  (now  the 
pin-heads)  uniting  into  a  Line  and  then  into 
a  Surface.  This  is  a  phase  of  the  return  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking,  and  is  the  deep 
demand  of  the  child's  own  Ego  for  completion. 
Froebel  says:  "Full  of  expression,  collecting, 
unifying  the  spirit  is  the  conjoining  movement 
from  Points  to  Lines,  and  from  these  again  to 
formation."  Soul-satisfying  it  is  to  the  child, 
because  it  completes  that  soul's  process,  and  leaves 
it  not  in  distracted  fragments.  Especially  in 
the  Occupations  will  this  movement  be  repeated 
in  numerous  varieties. 

In  another  passage  (Lange,  II.  345;  Miss 
Jarvis,  II.  45,  46)  Froebel  speaks  of  all  educa- 
tion as  proceeding  from  a  Point  which  has  within 
itself  the  mentioned  genetic  power,  being  the 
"  Point  of  germination."  Training  by  develop- 
ment "  recognizes  thisPoint  "  as  filled  with  all  the 
child's  future  unfolding,  "  as  the  starting-point 


268  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

and  source  of  all  true  education,"  as  carrying 
potentially  within  itself  "  the  limitations,  cause, 
and  laws  ' '  of  all  the  succeeding  manifestations  of 
the  spirit.  Thus  Froebel  uses  the  Point  as  a  kind 
of  counterpart  of  the  Ego  itself,  and  makes  it 
the  bearer,  metaphorically  at  least,  of  the  child's 
development. 

We  must  see,  therefore,  that  the  Point  is  at 
last  the  Point  of  Return ;  it  is  the  axis  upon 
which  the  processes  of  the  Gifts  of  Abstract 
Magnitude  turn  about  and  reproduce  the  Gifts  of 
Concrete  Magnitude.  The  Point  has  such  gene- 
rative energy,  which,  however,  is  not  going  to 
stop  with  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude,  but 
will  complete  the  Return  to  the  very  beginning. 

It  is  plain  that  we  have  come  back  to  the 
Derived  Gifts,  which  began  with  the  Cube. 
From  this  followed  the  movement  of  Derivation 
till  the  Point  was  reached,  which  in  one  sense  is 
derived,  but  in  the  other  and  deeper  sense  creates 
itself  —  that  is,  separates  itself  and  projects 
itself  into  the  Line,  Surface,  Solid.  Such  is  the 
whirl  back,  in  which  Derivation  derives  itself 
and  so  is  Origination.  Or  the  Derived  Gifts  have 
reached  back  to  the  Originative  Gift  in  this 
return  to  their  fountain  head. 

We  have  already  named  the  Second  Gift  — 
Sphere,  Cube,  and  Cylinder  —  the  Originative 
Gift,  since  from  it  were  derived  the  other  Gifts. 
But  it  has  begotten  a  child  which  is  also  orgi- 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIF-TS.—THE  POINT.      269 

native  like  itself,  and  has  come  back  seeking  its 
origin.  The  Point,  which  was  itself  derived, 
has  now  become  the  source  of  derivation ;  thus 
the  stream  turns  back  to  its  own  head  waters 
(say  through  the  clouds)  and  furnishes  its  own 
supply. 


III. 

THE    RETURN    TO    THE    ORIGINATIVE    GIFT. 

Such  is  the  final  step  now  to  be  taken  in  this 
series  of  Returns  which,  however,  constitute  one 
grand  Return  from  Point  to  Point. 

Previously  we  reached  the  Derived  Gifts  in 
our  journey  back  to  their  origin ;  but  all  deriva- 
tion points  to  origination,  and  so  our  journey  was 
not  then  complete.  Accordingly  we  pass  from 
the  Derived  Gifts,  which  start  with  the  Third 
Gift,  to  the  Second  Gift,  which  has  been  already 
designated  as  originative.  There  we  interlink 
the  end  of  the  chain  with  the  beginning,  and  the 
cycle  of  the  Quantitative  Gifts  is  complete. 

The  Return,  therefore,  sweeps  from  Point  to 
Point;  that  is,  from  the  Point  as  explicit,  free, 
genetic,  back  to  the  Point  as  implicit,  undevel- 
(270) 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  &IFTS.—  THE  POINT.      271 

oped,  potential,  lying  unborn  in  the  heart  of  the 
Sphere,  yet  lustily  struggling  for  birth.  Thus 
the  Point  has  generated  itself ,  namely,  the  Point, 
which  in  its  turn  is  self -gen  crating.  In  a  similar 
way,  the  acorn  generates,  through  the  vegetable 
process,  the  acorn  which  is  also  acorn-generat- 
ing. 

What  have  Ave  gained  by  the  movement? 
Gained  all  —  gained  our  starting-point  and  its 
complete  cycle  of  derivation.  That  implicit 
Point  in  the  Sphere,  with  its  whole  creative 
energy  we  took  for  granted  as  our  point  of  de- 
parture;  whence  did  it  come?  We  have  found 
that  it  unfolds  a  Point  which  is  not  only  genera- 
tive, but  self -generative,  when  conceived  in  its 
total  sweep.  Thus  the  Point  has  wheeled  back 
and  created  its  own  starting-point,  with  which 
we  began  the  process  of  the  Gifts.  That  which 
was  taken  for  granted  is  now  proved,  that  which 
was  immediate  is  now  mediated,  that  which  gen- 
erated all  the  Gifts  is  now  generated  itself ;  the 
fiat  of  creation  is  itself  created,  the  creator  has 
created  the  creator,  the  producer  has  produced 
that  which  produces  him. 

The  student  may  well  contemplate  this  return 
to  the  Originative  Gift  (the  Second)  out  of  the 
Derived  Series  in  his  best  thinking  mood, 
for  it  is  important,  and  not  easy,  and  needs  to  be 
carefully  considered.  We  have  just  seen  how  the 
Point  being  the  culmination  of  the  Derived  Gifts, 


272  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

becomes  in  its  turn  originative,  generating  the 
Line,  Surface,  Solid,  and  thence  passing  to  the 
Sphere,  the  starting-point  of  the  Quantitative 
Gifts,  in  fact  of  the  entire  series  of  Gifts  and 
Occupations.  Such  is,  then,  the  movement: 
the  Originative  once  passed  into  the  Derived,  but 
the  Derived  has  now  passed  back  into  the  Origi- 
native, thus  completing  the  cycle  of  the  present 
series. 

So  we  have  come  back  to  the  central  generative 
Point  of  the  Sphere,  with  which  we  started  the 
Second  Gift  and  the  Quantitative  Series.  But  we 
have  won  a  great  experience  in  the  process.  We 
now  know  that  this  central  Point,  generating  pri- 
marily the  periphery  of  the  Sphere,  is  the  genetic 
principle  out  of  which  develops  all  geometric  forms 
controlling  Nature,  and  out  of  which  comes  the 
science  of  Mathematics  in  some  of  its  most 
important  aspects.  The  Point  has  gone  through 
a  whole  series  of  incarnations,  and  has  finally 
reproduced  itself,  or,  we  may  say,  the  Sphere  has 
created  itself.  The  Ego  has  found  the  ideal 
center  which  is  self -creative,  or  at  least  images 
the  same;  next  it  must  make  this  generative 
principle  a  fact,  which  it  will  do  in  the  Occupa- 
tions or  Qualitative  Gifts.  The  Ego,  having 
made  the  Sphere  create  itself  ideally,  must 
itself  now  create  the  Sphere  really,  putting 
it  into  a  material  shape.  In  this  case  the  form 
is  not  merely  given  from  the  outside,  but  is 


FEOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      273 

molded  through  its  inner  qualities;  in  other 
words  the  material  in  the  Occupations  must  be 
transformed,  since  the  central  Point  of  the 
Gifts  is  now  creative  of  Form. 

It  is  true  that  we  (the  kindergardner)  gene- 
rated ideally  all  the  Quantitative  Gifts,  but  the 
child  has  had  them  given  to  him  in  material 
shape;  now,  however,  he  must  produce  or  rather 
reproduce  them. 

Through  giving  to  the  child  the  Quantitative 
Gifts  and  having  him  go  through  their  process, 
we  have  led  him  back  to  their  creative  source. 
When  he  reached  the  Point  and  saw  it  embodied 
in  some  object,  and  there  laid  the  material  Points 
together  and  formed  a  Line,  and  in  like  manner 
moved  through  the  Surface  into  the  Solid,  he 
was  getting  the  genetic  Idea  of  the  Gifts,  he  was 
changing  from  being  the  recipient  of  Form  to 
the  producer  of  Form. 

The  unseen  center  of  the  Sphere  can  be  em- 
bodied, and  thus  seen  by  the  child,  so  that  the 
invisible  creative  Point  is  suggested.  The  round 
disc  of  Points  with  the  Point  at  the  center  may 
suffice ;  but  an  orange  cut  in  two  will  show  in 
Nature  the  creative  principle,  the  seed  at  the  cen- 
ter, which  may  be  taken  as  an  embodied  Point. 
That  orange  seed  is  the  generative  real  Point 
which  also  reproduces  itself  through  the  process 
of  Nature,  as  the  return  into  itself. 

The  mind  of  the  child  through  the  discipline 
18 


274-  THE  PS YCJIOL OGY  OF 

of  the  cycle  of  the  Gifts  has  won  its  ideal  start- 
ing-point, and  can  now  begin  to  generate  that 
which  at  first  it  simply  took  for  granted.  Its 
next  step  is  to  produce  what  has  been  given  to 
it,  and  to  participate  in  the  deepest  principle  of 
the  educative  process.  Through  the  training 
which  lies  in  the  inner  movement  of  these  Gifts, 
the  child  has  unfolded  the  germ  of  productivity 
itself,  and  is  getting  ready  to  go  forth  as  the 
master  of  the  material  world. 

And  the  child  has  specially  gotten  hold  of  the 
inner  controlling  principle  of  the  Sphere,  its 
essential  quality,  which  he  can  now  use  for  his 
own  end.  He  can  reproduce  the  Sphere  in  any 
pliable  material,  as  clay  or  wax,  for  he  is  in  pos- 
session of  its  creative  thought  —  and  so  we  are 
ready  to  pass  to  the  Reproductive  Gifts  (Occu- 
pations). 


FBOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      275 


OBSERVATIONS     ON     THE     PRECEDING     MOVEMENT. 

1.  The  problem  about  numbering  the  Gifts 
comes  up  to  every  careful  student  for  solution. 
As  already  said,  we  claim  no  right  to  settle  this 
matter.  But  we  may  contribute  our  opinion 
along  with  other  persons  interested  in  the  cause. 
It  is  our  judgment  that  the  first  six  Gifts  should 
not  be  tampered  with ;  let  their  numerical  desig- 
nation remain  as  Froebel  gave  it  in  the  beginning. 
The  following  Gifts  we  would  number  in  this 
way:— 

Seventh  Gift  —  The  curvilinear  Gift. 

Eighth  Gift  — The  Surface  (tablets). 

Ninth  Gift  —  The  Line  (sticks  and  rings). 

Tenth  Gift— The  Point  (seeds,  etc.). 

In  several  manuals  the  last  two  designations 
are  already  employed.  The  Seventh  and  the 
Eighth  would  be  the  chief  changes  from  the 
present  numbering  of  the  Gifts. 

This  method  would  be  clear  and  logically 
adapted  to  the  subject-matter.  For  it  is  illogical 
and  confusing  to  give  two  numbers  to  the  Line, 
as  is  now  done,  and  only  one  to  the  Surface,  the 
latter  being  also  a  much  larger  Gift.  We  may 
well  feel  a  propriety  in  making  the  Point  the 


276  THE  PSYCHOLO&Y  OF 

Tenth  Gift.  For  ten  is  the  end  and  the  return 
of  the  decimal  system  to  its  beginning ;  10  goes 
back  to  1 ,  and  also  has  a  sign  of  its  own ;  ten 
has  thus  an  inner  correspondence  with  the  Point, 
and  in  a  degree  suggests  its  character.  Such 
congruences,  we  hold,  have  their  meaning 
and  educative  influence;  they  are  to  be  disre- 
garded in  the  presence  of  weightier  matters,  but 
otherwise  should  be  taken  into  the  account.  Let, 
then,  the  Point,  which  turns  back  to  its  begin- 
ning in  order  to  go  forward,  be  designated  by 
that  number  in  the  system  of  numbers,  which 
also  turns  back  to  its  beginning  in  order  to  go 
forward. 

2.  The  student  may  be  at  first  somewhat  con- 
fused by  the  quantity  of  the  foregoing  Returns, 
each  of  which  is  the  third  stage  of  the  Psychosis 
and  closes  a  special  process,  the  whole  of  which 
then  makes  a  transition  to  an  antecedent,  more 
comprehensive  process. 

The  three  Returns  here  set  forth  we  shall 
recapitulate  in  their  order  and  try  to  designate 
them  more  briefly  and  sharply. 

First.  When  the  Point  produces  through  the 
Line  the  Surface,  there  is  the  Return  from  the 
Tenth  to  the  Seventh  Gifts,  from  the  seeds 
(Points)  to  the  tablets  (Surfaces),  from  the  end 
of  Abstract  Magnitude  to  the  starting-point, 
which  movement  constitutes  the  cycle  of  the 
Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude. 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.  — THE  POINT.      277 

Second.  When  the  Surface  through  its  genetic 
energy  moves  into  the  Solid,  there  is  the  return 
from  the  Seventh  to  the  Third  Gift,  or  we  may 
say,  to  the  Cube  and  Cylinder  of  the  Second 
Gift  as  derived  forms.  It  is  the  Return  from 
Abstract  to  Concrete  Magnitude,  and  makes  the 
Cycle  of  the  included  Gifts,  or  the  totality  of 
the  Derived  Gifts. 

Third.  The  final  Return  is  that  from  Cube 
and  Cylinder  to  Sphere  and  Point  of  the  Second 
Gift,  which  completes  the  cycle  of  the  Quanti- 
tative Gifts,  showing  the  Point  proceeding  from 
and  then  returning  to  the  Point. 

These  three  Returns  are,  however,  but  steps 
of  one  great  Return.  Still  these  steps  should  be 
carefully  noted,  as  they  constitute  the  connect- 
ing links  of  the  different  cycles  of  the  Gifts  to 
which  they  separately  belong.  Moreover  they, 
each  and  all,  are  necessary  to  show  the  psycholog- 
ical process  which  underlies  and  organizes  these 
Gifts.  The  Psychosis,  the  inner  process  of  the 
Ego  itself,  is  the  creative  principle  of  them,  and 
is  that  which  makes  them  educative  in  the  deep- 
est sense  of  the  word.  The  child's  Ego,  poten- 
tial, implicit,  slumbering,  is  unfolded  into  reality 
and  awakened  to  take  possession  of  itself  and  of 
the  world  through  the  inherent  psychical  move- 
ment of  these  Gifts. 

3.  We  may  thus  behold  three  cycles  in  this 
quantitative  series  of  Gifts,  one  within  the  other, 


278  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

till  the  central  Point  is  reached  (in  fact  we  can 
in  a  way  count  four  cycles).  Here  is  again  sug- 
gested the  principle  of  concentrisin,  as  the  final 
outcome  of  the  whole  process.  This,  however, 
is  an  inner,  spiritual  concentrism,  which  is  based 
on  the  return  through  the  Point.  Such  return  in- 
tegrates the  missing  link  in  the  three  cycles  before 
mentioned,  making  the  same  complete  in  them- 
selves, yet  an  organic  part  of  the  total  movement 
of  the  Gifts.  (See  table.) 

Already  we  had  the  outer  manifestation  of 
concentrism  in  the  Second  Gift,  where  it  showed 
itself  in  a  number  of  shapes,  as  in  the  concentric 
forms  of  Sphere,  Cube,  and  Cylinder.  Concen- 
trism repeated  itself  in  the  Surface  and  in  the 
Line ;  thus  it  has  accompanied  us  throughout  the 
entire  development  of  the  quantitative  Gifts. 
Such  is  what  we  call  its  symbolic  appearance,  its 
manifestation  in  outward  shapes,  which,  however, 
suggest  and  carry  the  soul  into  the  inward  mean- 
ing. This  suggestiveness  of  concentric  shapes, 
whether  spherical,  circular,  or  rectilineal,  has 
been  already  emphasized  as  giving  the  idea  of 
completeness,  of  a  self -returning  totality,  of  the 
movement  of  all  things  outward  from,  and  in- 
ward to,  the  central  creative  Point  or  Source. 

But  now  these  external  forms  of  concentrism 
are  seen  to  foreshadow  the  inner  character  and 
movement  of  the  totality  of  the  quantitative  Gifts, 
which  also  show  essentially  three  self-returning 


FBOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      279 

cycles  which  are  to  be  grasped  through  an  inward 
representation.  Here  again  triplicity  makes  itself 
valid. 

4.  This  seems  to  be  the  best  place  for  insert- 
ing a  tabular  statement  of  the  entire  series  of  the 
quantitative  Gifts.  The  student  can  see  at  a 
glance  all  the  divisions  through  which  she  has 
been  moving  in  the  foregoing  exposition,  and  also 
their  relation  to  one  another  and  to  the  whole. 
Process  within  process  is  shown  by  the  order ; 
the  threefold  movement  is  seen  to  be  the  unifying 
principle  in  the  largest  as  well  as  in  the  smallest 
portion.  Wheel  within  wheel  like  intricate  clock- 
work, yet  all  of  it  moving  separately  and  together 
in  harmony ;  the  clock-work  of  the  soul  we  may 
name  it,  just  now,  into  which  you  look  as  through 
a  transparent  crystal  covering.  The  child-soul  is 
unfolding  itself  by  playing  with  these  Gifts, 
which  also  have  a  soul  and  its  movement,  though 
externalized  in  material  objects.  Let  the  student 
contemplate  this  concentrated  epitome  of  all  that 
has  gone  before  and  take  it  up  within,  identify- 
ing the  same  with  her  own  Ego  and  its  processes. 
For  the  soul  of  this  tabular  diagram  is  just  the 
Psychosis,  which  is  likewise  her  own  soul's  form 
and  movement. 

Let  her  trace  in  the  table  and  at  the  same  time 
assimilate  in  her  thought  the  three  grand  Returns 
through  the  Point  as  seen  in  the  divisions  of  the 
quantitative  Gifts,  since  they  are  here  indicated 


280  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 


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FROEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      281 

outwardly  by  number  and  word,  which,  however, 
are  not  merely  to  be  memorized,  but  are  to  be 
re-created  by  the  thinking  Ego. 

5.  The  attempt  of  man  to  return  to  his  origin, 
to  the  first  fountains  of  his  being,  has  been  cele- 
brated in  many  ways.  The  hero  of  Northern 
legend,  Sigfried,  goes  through  his  marvelous 
career  and  does  his  memorable  deeds  in  the 
search  to  find  out  whence  he  sprang.  Oedipus, 
in  Greek  story,  must  discover  who  were  his 
parents  in  spite  of  the  warning  of  the  Oracle : 
> «  Mayst  thou  never  know  the  truth  of  what  thou 
art!  "  Still  he  has  to  know,  and  know  himself, 
though  fate  smite  him  for  his  knowledge.  The 
Bibles  of  the  world  try  to  tell  to  man,  their 
follower,  the  nature  of  his  origin  and  the  very 
period  of  his  creation.  In  a  more  daring  spirit 
Hesiod  unfolds  the  origin  of  the  Gods  themselves, 
the  rulers  and  creators  of  man. 

Strange  to  say,  modern  science  has  herein 
trodden  in  the  footsteps  of  the  old  Mythus, 
which  gives  always  some  prophetic  forecast  of 
the  future.  Darwin  is  our  latest  hero,  who  has 
gone  in  search  of  the  "  Origin  of  the  Species," 
really  the  Origin  of  the  Human  Species,  and 
brought  back  Evolution,  not  simply  of  the  spirit 
(which  was  known  and  believed  before)  but  em- 
bodied in  living  forms,  made  visible  in  organisms. 
Nature's  organic  development  has  been  incarnated 
by  Darwin  in  his  epos  of  our  modern  age,  some- 


282  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

what  as  Nature's  inorganic  development  has  been 
embodied  by  Froebel  in  these  play-gifts  for  the 
little  child.  Like  the  descent  and  the  ascent  of 
the  Point,  so  we  are  served  to  the  descent  and 
the  ascent  of  man  himself,  in  a  line  of  re-incar- 
nations from  the  beginning,  showing  an  inner 
transforming  power  which  clothes  itself  in  an 
ordered  succession  of  external  living  shapes. 

The  most  colossal  image  of  this  self -return  is 
found  in  Northern  Mythology,  which  tells  of  the 
huge  earth-serpent  coiled  around  the  whole  ter- 
raqueous globe,  and  holding  up  the  same  in  its 
circular  fold  by  putting  its  tail  into  its  mouth. 
Thus  is  our  earth  supported  from  falling  into 
everlasting  chaos,  and  held  in  its  orbit  of  light 
by  a  self -returning  cycle  or  perchance  by  several 
of  them,  as  that  serpent  may  have  been  long 
enough  to  have  reached  around  the  globe  two  or 
three  times.  Why  not?  Thus  we  may  behold 
in  it  also  a  kind  of  My  thus  of  Concentrism. 

6.  Deeply  implanted  in  the  human  soul  is  the 
idea  of  the  Return,  which  has  its  place  in  relig- 
ion also  and  expresses  itself  in  the  faith  and  hope 
of  a  return  to  the  Divine  Source.  Man's  destiny 
is  to  return  to  God,  his  Creator;  he  works, 
develops  more  and  more,  makes  real  his  possi- 
bilties,  yet  the  end  is  the  getting  back  to  the  f  oun- 
tainhead.  All  religions  make  some  attempt  to 
embody  in  rite  or  to  express  in  creed  this  infinite 
longing  of  the  human  heart,  whose  deepest  aspir- 


FEOEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      283 

ation  is  "to  see  God,"  the  creative  Point  of 
the  great  Ball  whose  periphery  is  the  Universe. 
Thus  our  mortal  journey  is  a  going  which  also  is 
a  returning,  or  at  least  has  in  it  the  Return  to 
the  Primal  Source  as  the  very  soul  of  its  pro- 
gress. Already  we  have  seen  the  rectilineal 
passing  into  the  curvilineal  as  its  higher  stage, 
in  order  that  it  may  return  into  itself. 

7.  It  will  be   recollected   by   the   student   of 
Dante  that  when  the  poet  in  his  descent  comes 
to  the  central  Point  of  the  earth-ball,  he  has  to 
whirl  about,  he  makes  the  grand  turn,  placing 
his  head  where  his  feet  were  before,  ere  he  can 
begin  the  ascent,  the  movement  upwards  which 
is  for  him  the  Eeturn.     In  order  to  emphasize 
its  meaning,  he  stops  to    bid  the  reader   think 
"  what  a   point   it   was   that   I   turned!"     For 
Dante  it  was  indeed  the  turning-point  out  of  the 
deepest  depth  of  the  Inferno,  to  which  hitherto 
had  been  his  descent,  but  now  came  the  ascent. 
Thus  the  mighty  imagination  of  the  world-poet 
has  seized  upon  the  globe  itself  as  his  Ball  with 
its  central  Point,  using  the  latter  as  the  turning- 
point  in  the   weightest   of   all   human   matters, 
namely  the  Return  from   Evil   to    Good,    from 
Hell  to  Heaven,  from  Satan  to  God. 

8.  Froebel  has  given  us  a  glimpse  of  the  re- 
turning movement  which  was  in  his  mind  con- 
nected with  stick-laying,  a  favorite  play-gift  of 
his.     He  notices   how  the  Cube  unfolds  out  of 


284  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  Sphere,  and  continues  its  development  to  the 
sticks;  then  how  the  latter  pass  back  to  the 
Sphere  as  their  source.  He  claims  stick-laying 
to  be  an  educative  means  which  has  both  these 
movements  in  it,  the  descending  and  the  ascend- 
ing (abwarts  vom  Stabchen  bis  zur  Kugel,  und 
auf warts  von  der  Kugel  bis  zum  Stabchen. 
See  the  passage  in  Lange,  II.  392;  translation 
by  Miss  Jarvis,  II.  123) .  Hardly  more  than  this 
do  we  find  anywhere  in  Froebel,  that  is,  in  the 
formulated  statements  of  his  procedure.  The 
Return  in  its  full  sweep  and  bearing  seems  never 
to  have  been  developed  by  him,  though  he  has 
fitful  flashes  of  it  in  a  number  of  places.  Already 
we  have  cited  a  significant  gleam  of  his  touching 
the  return  from  the  Point. 

Froebel  sees  the  process  of  his  play-gifts  most 
distinctly  under  the  form  of  an  image  taken  from 
vegetable  nature.  Over  and  over  again  he  re- 
curs to  such  an  image  for  their  illustration.  In 
the  essay  on  stick-laying  just  alluded  to  he  con- 
siders "  the  Ball  to  be  a  flower-bud,  which >  when 
it  blossoms,  develops  a  multitude  of  stamens  and 
pistils,"  which  are  linear  chiefly.  So  he  con- 
nects organically  the  Ball  or  Sphere  with  the 
sticks  as  lines. 

9.  But  the  most  suggestive  point  of  Return  as 
witnessed  in  vegetable  nature,  is  the  seed,  the 
true  representative  and  embodiment  of  the  Point. 
The  apple  is  a  Sphere  which  is  determined  by 


FROEBEVS  PL  Ay  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      285 

the  seed  at  the  center,  or  the  central  Point.  The 
apple  unfolds  from  the  seed,  yet  produces  the 
seed  as  its  end,  the  genetic  part  of  itself,  since 
the  pulp  of  the  apple  exists  to  protect  and  to  feed 
this  reproductive  element  of  itself.  Such  is  the 
vegetable  cycle  already  alluded  to,  with  its  des- 
cent on  the  one  side  and  its  ascent  on  the  other. 
The  animal  cycle  of  generation  has  a  similar  pro- 
cess, though  more  concealed. 

Surrounding  the  seed  or  in  the  seed  itself  is 
what  largely  sustains  the  life  of  animate  creation. 
Man  lives  chiefly  on  seeds  (cereals  or  nuts)  and 
what  envelops  the  seeds  (fruit)  ;  that  which  re- 
produces the  vegetable  body  through  nature's  vast 
digestive  organs,  reproduces  his  body  through 
his  inner  apparatus  for  digestion.  The  little 
child,  eating  the  apple,  finds  at  its  center  the 
seed  which  is  to  produce  the  tree,  and  the  tree  is 
to  produce  the  apple  with  its  seed  at  the  center. 
Thus  the  child  actually  lives  in  and  through  the 
vegetable  cycle,  which  thereby  develops  his 
body ;  but  he  must  see  that  cycle  as  a  whole, 
which  thereby  develops,  calls  forth,  educates  his 
mind. 

In  the  vegetable  world,  accordingly,  we  can 
behold  both  an  inner  and  outer  concentrism,  as 
well  as  the  suggested  movement  from  the  Point 
through  Line,  Surface,  Solid,  back  to  Point. 
There  is,  first,  in  the  apple-tree  an  outer  concen- 
trism seen  in  its  annual  concentric  layers  of 


28G  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  Of 

wood.  Secondly  there  is  the  inner  concentrism 
or  rather  cycle,  also  annual,  which  we  have 
already  traced  from  seed  to  seed,  involving  the 
entire  vegetable  process.  The  Point  (as  seed) 
shoots  into  Lines  (stem,  branch,  trunk)  and  even 
into  Surfaces  (leaves  thousandfold),  and  also 
into  the  Solid  of  many  kinds,  producing  them  all 
on  its  creative  journey  back  (or  forward)  to  the 
Point  (as  seed),  embodying  in  its  forms  the  full 
sweep  of  both  Abstract  and  Concrete  Magnitudes. 
Legend,  too,  has  been  busy  with  the  seed,  yea 
with  the  apple-seed,  and  has  even  given  to  a  man 
the  name  of  Apple-seed,  with  a  kind  of  romantic, 
whimsical,  yet  symbolic  turn  of  its  many-hued 
kaleidoscope.  This  human  Apple-seed  had  the 
inveterate  habit  of  wandering  about  and  planting 
apple-seeds,  that  is,  himself,  throughout  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  where  the  Popular  Tale  has 
picked  him  up  and  keeps  him  alive  and  going 
still  in  an  everlasting  play-gift  of  planting  apple- 
seeds,  which  children  imitate  in  the  kindergarden. 
Also  he-  sang  at  his  work,  like  the  child,  who 
sings  into  himself  the  -deep  germ  of  all  growth 
just  in  his  play.  So  little  Johnny  Apple-seed 
had  his  little  play-song,  even  as  Froebel  had,  and 
Homer  too,  for  that  matter.  One  of  his  songs 
we  shall  here  set  down,  and  therewith  bring  to  a 
tiny  musical  close  the  present  chapter. 


FEOE BEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— THE  POINT.      287 

I  love  to  plant  a  little  seed 

Whose  fruit  I  never  see ; 
Some  hungry  stranger  it  will  feed, 

When  it  becomes  a  tree. 

I  love  to  sing  a  little  song 

Whose  words  attune  the  day, 
And  round  me  see  the  children  throng 

When  I  begin  to  play. 


I  sing  my  heart  into  the  air, 
And  plant  my  way  with  seed, 

The  song  sends  music  everywhere, 
The  tree  will  tell  my  deed. 


CHAPTER  THIRD. 

THE    OCCUPATIONS. 

Through  the  discipline  of  the  Gifts,  the  mind 
of  the  child  has  won  its  ideal  starting-point ;  he 
has  generated  through  the  Point  what  he  took 
for  granted  in  the  beginning ;  what  was  given 
him  at  first,  he  has  now  produced ;  out  of  deriva- 
tion he  has  developed  into  origination.  Moving 
with  the  process  of  the  Gifts,  he  has  become  pro- 
ductive, creative;  he  has  reached  the  inner,  cen- 
tral, genetic  Point  out  of  which  unfolds  the  ex- 
ternal material  world ;  from  the  quantitative  or 
extensive  principle  he  has  passed  to  the  qualitative 
or  intensive.  Or,  we  can  say,  from  the  recipient 
of  Form  in  the  Gifts  he  has  unfolded  into  the 
producer  of  Form  in  the  Occupations. 
(288) 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     289 

So  the  return  from  the  Point  to  the  Point 
means  not  only  the  closing  of  the  cycle  of  the 
Gifts,  but  also  the  opening  of  the  cycle  of  the 
Occupations.  And  this  means  not  only  the  outer 
combination  of  what  was  already  given,  but  also 
the  inner  transformation  of  it  through  its 
properties. 

In  the  system  of  Play-gifts  as  a  whole,  we 
have  already  designated  three  grand  sweeps  or 
movements,  of  which  we  have  now  reached  the 
third.  This  embraces  what  is  usually  called  the 
Occupations  —  a  term  which  has  become  so  fully 
entrenched  in  the  minds  of  kindergardners  that 
it  will  have  to  be  retained.  To  be  sure,  all  these 
Play-gifts  are  occupations  of  the  child,  and  often 
so  called  by  Froebel  himself,  inasmuch  as  they 
occupy  the  child  and  furnish  means  of  employ- 
ment. 

If,  however,  we  wish  to  connect  this  third 
stage  with  the  preceding  one,  and  at  the  same 
time  designate  the  difference  between  the  two, 
we  may  call  these  the  Qualitative  Play-gifts,  while 
the 'former  are  the  Quantitative  Play-gifts.  The 
reason  for  such  a  designation  will,  we  hope,  be 
made  clear  from  the  following  exposition. 

It  will  be  well  to  recall  at  this  point  the  first 
stage  also,  the  First  Play-gift  —  the  six  Balls  — 
which  was  named  the  Potential  Gift,  as  contain- 
ing implicitly  all  the  rest.  So  we  must  expect 
in  this  third  stage,  that  many  things  which  were 

19 


290  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

hinted,  intimated,  suggested  but  not  developed 
in  the  first  stage,  will  now  be  brought  out,  made 
explicit  in  thought  and  given  a  name.  The  First 
Gift  was  also  qualitative,  hence  we  observe  a  re- 
turn to  it  —  which  fact  already  points  to  the 
psychical  process  underlying  the  total  sweep  of 
the  Play-gifts. 

The  question  which  is  or  ought  to  be  upper- 
most in  the  mind  of  the  student  at  this  point  is, 
What  is  the  distinction  between  the  second  and 
third  stages?  Or,  to  put  the  same  question  in 
its  ordinary  form :  What  is  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Gifts  and  the  Occupations? 

1.  In  the  Occupations  the  child  begins  to  deal 
with  the  inner,  intensive,  physical  qualities  of 
matter  while  in  the  Gifts  he  deals  with  the  outer, 
extensive,  mechanical  relations  of  matter.  When 
he  perforates  a  piece  of  paper  with  a  needle,  or 
even  dots  it  with  a  lead  pencil,  he  is  testing  it, 
and  is  discovering  through  his  test  the  inner 
quality  or  property  of  the  object,  say  its  pentra- 
bility  or  its  tenacity.  We  call  it  an  inner  quality 
of  the  object,  for  he  cannot  see  it  or  feel  it 
directly;  he  iias  to  test  it  by  some  sort  of 
attack  upon  it,  and  then  see  or  hear  its  response 
to  his  attack,  he  has  to  assail  its  individuality 
and  make  it  show  its  mettle,  its  inner  character  — 
and  this  is  the  quality  of  which  we  speak.  We 
can  see  in  peace  the  extensive  nature  or  form 
of  a  piece  of  matter,  but  we  can  find  out  its 


FR  0  EBEL '  S  P  L  A  Y  OIF  TS.—OCC  UP  A  TIONS.     291 

intensive  nature  or  quality  only  through  a 
fight. 

So  the  child  opens  his  battle  with  all  creation 
or  at  least  with  all  nature,  for  he  must  know  the 
inner  quality  of  everything  in  his  environment 
before  he  can  be  master.  Let  us  now  compare 
how  he  proceeds  in  the  Gifts.  He  does  not  as- 
sail the  Cubes  or  the  Bricks  in  building ;  he  puts 
them  on  top  of  one  another,  he  combines  them 
outwardly  into  some  form,  he  does  not  attack 
them  inwardly  for  some  quality  of  theirs  which 
he  wishes  to  get  at  and  to  employ  for  his  own 
purpose. 

In  the  Gifts  combination  is  the  word  and  the 
fact,  either  by  way  of  superposition  or  juxtapo- 
sition ;  in  the  Occupations  transformation  is  the 
word  and  the  fact,  or  inner  change  of  the  ma- 
terial, whereby  its  quality  is  manifested. 

Such  is  the  first  emphatic  distinction.  Yet 
this  we  must  see  aright  and  not  in  excess.  There 
is  no  denying  that  the  Gifts  —  Ball,  Cube  and 
the  rest  —  have  also  inner  qualities  of  matter. 
They  have  hardness,  impenetrability,  a  degree  of 
elasticity,  etc.  And  one  quality  of  matter,  the 
most  universal,  namely,  gravity,  has  of  necessity 
to  be  taken  into  account,  in  the  Building  Gifts. 
Yet  even  here  gravity,  though  always  present,  is 
not  explicit  except  in  a  few  of  the  more  compli- 
cated forms.  The  stress  in  these  Gifts  is  upon 
the  quantitative  element,  form,  number  and 


292  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

measure  —  Geometry,  Arithmetic  and  Mensura- 
tion. The  qualitative  element  recedes  into  the 
background  till  brought  to  the  front  in  the  Occu- 
pations. 

Elasticity  is  an  inner  quality  of  matter,  not 
apparent  till  tested.  When  the  elastic  Ball  is 
thrown  against  the  floor,  it  rebounds,  it  asserts 
itself  after  being  assailed,  thus  showing  its  inner 
quality.  The  Ball  of  the  First  Gift  4is  rightly 
made  elastic,  this  Gift  being  qualitative;  but  the 
Ball  of  the  Second  Gift  starts  the  quantitative 
series  and  hence  is  indifferent  to  quality,  as  far 
as  thought  is  concerned,  though  its  material  must 
undoubtedly  show  certain  qualities.  Hence  not 
too  much  stress  is  to  be  placed  upon  the  hard- 
ness of  the  second  Ball,  as  is  often  done  by  kindcr- 
gardners.  The  hardness  or  softness  of  the 
second  Ball  (or  Sphere)  really  cuts  no  figure  in 
the  quantitative  series ;  nobody  ever  speaks'  of  it 
or  thinks  of  it  afterwards,  in  the  course  of  these 
Gifts.  It  is  true  that  Froebel  sets  the  example 
in  the  present  instance,  but  that  example,  we 
have  agreed,  is  to  be  rationally  followed,  not 
always  literally.  And  the  rational  ground  of  his 
quantitative  Gifts  must  make  them  quite  indiffer- 
ent to  the  qualitative  element. 

In  the  Occupations,  therefore,  the  child  begins 
that  great  conquest  of  Nature  through  investi- 
gating and  utilizing  her  inner  qualities,  which  is 
the  peculiar  function  of  our  own  time.  He 


FKOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     293 

pries  into  her  secrets  literally,  using  some  kind  of 
a  pry  —  a  knife,  a  pin,  a  needle,  or,  it  may  be, 
merely  his  hand.  And  this  brings  us  to  the  next 
chief  difference  between  the  present  and  the 
preceding  stage  —  the  implement. 

2 .  In  the  Occupations  the  child  is  to  be  intro- 
duced to  the  use  of  implements.  In  the  Gifts, 
which  require  only  external  combination,  he 
can  get  along  with  his  hand  alone.  But  now 
he  must  enter  into  the  heart  of  the  object,  he 
must  overcome  its  resistance  by  new  means,  he 
needs  something  more  than  hand,  finger,  or 
finger-nail.  He  has  to  have  a  tool,  which  is  a 
kind  of  specialized  or  intensified  hand  made  to 
grip  this  and  that  shape  of  Nature  in  its  very 
vitals. 

The  simple  hand  has  in  the  tool  a  means  or 
medium  which  works  between  itself  and  the 
object;  a  mediating  principle  lies  in  the  tool, 
which  is  to  mediate  the  grand  opposition  between 
Man  and  Nature.  The  tool  which  is  turned  upon 
the  physical  object  with  a  certain  quality  is  itself 
a  physical  object  with  a  certain  quality ;  thus 
Man  directs  Nature  against  Nature  and  thereby 
subjects  her  through  herself  as  embodied  in  the 
implement.  Or,  we  may  say  that  Man,  having 
investigated  and  discovered  the  relative  qualities 
of  Nature,  turns  the  stronger  quality  against 
the  weaker  and  thereby  triumphs.  The  tool  is, 
it  may  be  said,  the  primal  military  weapon  by 


294  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  aid  of  which  the  human  being  is  to  win  and 
to  secure  his  freedom  against  the  overwhelming 
power  of  external  Nature.  The  child  is  to  be 
trained  in  the  use  of  the  implement,  and  to  begin 
his  training  early,  for  he  needs  it  in  his  very 
first  years.  A  kind  of  military  discipline  it  is, 
and  he  a  kind  of  soldier,  exercising  himself  in 
the  opening  yet  ever-enduring  battle  of  life. 

Not  without  profound  insight  has  man  been 
defined  as  a  tool-making  animal.  He  seizes  upon 
a  quality  of  the  physical  object  and  turns  it 
into  his  implement  for  mastering  that  refractory 
world  surrounding  him  everywhere  called  Nature. 

But  why  does  he  wish  to  master  her?  Other- 
wise she  masters  him,  she  determines  him,  he  is 
not  free. 

Here  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  grand  ultimate 
end  which  man  is  seeking  by  the  use  of  tools, 
namely,  freedom.  The  great  industrial  age,  and 
the  great  industrial  peoples,  those  who  make  the 
most  perfect  tools,  and  who  use  them  most  per- 
fectly, are  in  the  last  view  working  for  a  higher 
liberty,  and  are  realizing  not  only  material  wealth 
but  also  free  institutions.  The  locomotive,  the 
telegraph,  the  sewing-machine  are  the  mightiest 
liberators  of  the  human  race  that  the  earth  has 
yet  seen;  but  they  are  simply  huge  tools  which, 
once  put  into  the  hands  of  man  and  woman,  will 
snap  the  adamantine  fetters  of  Space,  Time,  and 
Matter,  with  which  external  Nature  shackles  every 


FROEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS.— OCCUPATION'S.    295 

child  born  into  the  world.  The  tool  is,  therefore, 
an  instrument  of  freedom,  and  every  blow  struck 
by  the  workman  upon  his  steam  engine  is,  in  the 
final  outlook  of  life,  a  blow  for  freedom. 

The  child  is  to  be  trained  to  handle  the  tool 
as  soon  as  he  begins  to  show  the  need  of  it.  In 
this  way  alone  can  he  take  possession  of  his 
spiritual  heritage;  through  the  tool  he  starts 
to  become  an  active  member  of  the  wonderful 
industrial  civilization  which  is  the  deepest 
fact  of  his  epoch.  We  must  not  prolong 
his  apprenticeship  to  the  hand,  though  this 
be  necessary  at  the  beginning,  for  he  must 
first  get  possession  of  his  hand  before  he  can 
use  a  tool.  Still  beyond  a  certain  limit,  hand- 
work becomes  enslaving  and  pulls  down  the  child, 
while  tool-work  is  liberating,  and  draws  him  up- 
ward toward  a  more  complete  freedom. 

In  the  Occupations  when  he  begins  Dotting,  a 
pencil  is  put  into  his  hand,  which  is  a  tool ;  in  Per- 
foration he  must  have  some  kind  of  a  sharp  tool 
and  learn  to  use  it  with  care,  for  he  must  find  out 
that  he  can  stick  himself  with  the  same  weapon 
with  which  he  sticks  nature.  This  is  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  training,  and  cannot  be  set  aside ; 
still  let  there  be  no  excess  in  exposing  the  child 
to  danger.  There  is  some  danger  in  everything. 
It  is  dangerous  to  breathe,  especially  in  the  city, 
yet  we  cannot  live  without  breathing ;  it  is  hazar- 
dous to  open  the  eyes  lest  something  get  into 


296  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

them,  still  we  cannot  see  at  all  unless  we  look. 
So  the  tool  is  dangerous,  but  the  child  might 
as  well  be  unborn  as  not  to  learn  the  use  of  it, 
and  thereby  expose  himself  to  some  danger. 

We  may  note  here  the  correspondence  between 
the  tool  and  its  effect :  the  pointed  pencil  makes 
a  point,  the  sharpened  needle  shows  a  correspond- 
ing puncture ;  the  line  of  sharp  points  in  the 
knife-blade  produces  the  line  in  cutting  the  paper ; 
the  brush  is  a  kind  of  surface  applied  to  sur- 
faces chiefly,  and  the  paper  knife  requires  sur- 
face, line  or  edge,  and  point  to  serve  as  an 
implement  in  folding.  Thus  the  tool  with  its 
special  quality  makes  its  impress  upon  the  object, 
whose  refractory  quality  is  thereby  met  and 
mastered. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  great  mistake  to  forbid  the 
child  the  use  of  the  tool  in  the  Occupations.  It 
is  worse,  it  is  a  wrong,  since  it  hinders  or  delays 
him  in  taking  possession  of  his  inheritance  as  a 
member  of  our  industrial  civilization.  It  cripples 
him  as  a  tool-user,  and  hence  as  a  tool-maker ;  it 
rears  a  lame  member  of  the  social  order,  it  sins 
against  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Yet  the  attempt 
has  been  made  to  banish,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
tool  from  the  Occupations  and  to  throw  the  child 
back  solely  upon  his  hand.  But  the  opposite 
doctrine  is  the  true  one :  introduce  the  tool  as 
much  as  he  can  use  it  to  advantage. 

The  point  at  which  the  tool  should  appear  may 


FROEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS. -OCCUPATIONS     297 

be  stated :  when  the  object  can  be  made  by  the 
child  more  perfect  through  using  the  tool,  the 
child  must  have  it,  and  to  keep  it  away  from  him 
is  a  mistake,  yea  a  wrong.  For  the  grand  ideal 
of  attainment  is  perfection,  and  to  interfere  with 
that  is  to  strike  at  the  root  of  all  education,  in- 
tellectual and  moral.  When  the  child  can  model 
his  cube  or  his  house  a  little  better  by  means  of 
a  small  modeling  knife,  it  must  be  put  into  his 
hands ;  when  he  can  fold  his  paper  forms  in  a 
neater  style  with  a  paper-folder,  let  him  have  it 
in  spite  of  any  cast-iron  rule  to  the  contrary. 
For  he  is  not  merely  to  develop  his  hand,  but 
chiefly  is  to  develop  perfection,  whose  ideal  fleets 
before  him  and  lures  him  onward. 

The  answer  is  often  made :  But  we  must  make 
the  hand  perfect  first.  Not  by  any  means ;  hand- 
training  is  not  an  end  in  itself,  it  is  only  a  means. 
When  the  hand  fails,  the  tool  must  be  called  for. 
In  special  vocations,  like  piano-playing  or  car- 
pentry, a  special  hand-training  is  necessary,  but 
this  does  not  hold  in  the  Occupations,  whose 
object  is  to  make,  not  a  piano-player  or  a  car- 
penter, but  a  man,  whose  ideal  is  perfection. 
4 '  Be  ye  perfect,"  is  the  divine  injunction,  placing 
the  Divine  itself  as  the  ideal  to  be  followed. 

Again  we  repeat  that  the  culture  of  the  hand 
frees  the  soul  up  to  a  certain  point,  but  beyond 
that  point  enslaves  it.  There  are  hand-civiliza- 
tions and  there  are  tool-civilizations,  The  Ori- 


298  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

entals  chiefly  belong  to  the  former;  we  cannot 
compete  with  the  Hindoos,  the  Chinese,  or  even 
the  Arabians  in  the  manual  dexterity  required  in 
some  of  their  fabrics.  And  if  we  of  the  Occident 
did  train  ourselves  to  such  a  competition,  it  would 
ruin  us,  it  would  enslave  us.  We  use  and  make 
the  tool,  and  the  biggest  kind  of  a  tool,  the 
machine,  whose  ultimate  sacred  end,  we  believe, 
is  the  freeing  of  man  from  the  bonds  of  Nature. 
Among  Oriental  peoples  we  admire  Japan,  which 
is  adopting  the  Occidental  implement  in  its  largest 
forms,  and  so  is  passing  from  a  hand-civilization 
to  a  tool-civilization  —  certainly  one  of  the  great 
miracles  of  the  modern  world. 

Accordingly,  in  going  from  the  Gifts  to  the 
Occupations  the  child  begins  to  move  out  of  mere 
hand- work  to  tool- work,  and  therein  is  marching 
on  a  line  with  the  development  of  his  race. 

3.  We  now  come  to  the  most  important  fact 
of  the  Occupations,  indeed  the  one  all-embracing 
fact  of  them,  without  which  they  would  have  no 
real  meaning.  This  essential  fact  is  that  the 
child  must  henceforth  go  back  and  reproduce  for 
himself  what  has  been  given  him ;  he  must  make 
over  anew  what  was  previously  made  for  him ; 
he  must  return  upon  his  work,  and  the  forms 
which  he  once  received  and  combined  he  has  now 
to  produce  through  his  own  activity. 

So  the  child  in  the  Occupations  goes  back  and 
makes  his  Ball,  his  Cube,  his  Bricks,  and  pro- 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     299 

duces  his  own  Points  and  Lines  and  Surfaces. 
Out  of  clay  he  can  model  quite  all  of  the  Build- 
ing Gifts  and  use  them;  he  not  only  combines 
externally,  but  transforms  internally,  through 
some  inner  quality,  his  material.  Thus  he  begins 
to  make  his  own  presuppositions,  and  to  create 
for  himself  what  he  before  simply  accepted ;  he 
has  opened  his  life's  career  of  reconstructing 
what  he  once  took  for  granted,  and  he  cannot 
stop  till  he  builds  anew  the  old  starting-point  — 
and  this  not  only  outwardly  but  also  inwardly, 
wherein  lies  the  true  educative  value  of  the  act. 

And  here  we  must  note  again  the  real  meaning 
of  the  word  Gift  in  the  present  connection.  It 
signifies  something  given,  taken  for  granted,  pre- 
supposed ;  it  thus  represents  the  given  world  into 
which  the  child  is  born,  and  which  determines 
him  from  every  direction.  This  world  is  what  he 
is  to  create  over  into  his  own  and  so  possess ;  thus 
he  makes  his  own  presupposition,  he  determines 
his  own  determinant,  and  thereby  attains  free- 
dom. 

Froebel's  Gifts  are  not,  therefore,  merely  little 
presents  to  the  little  child,  with  which  he  may 
amuse  himself,  though  they  be  all  this  too ;  they 
stand  for  something  far  deeper,  nothing  less  than 
the  educative  movement  of  the  individual  and  of 
the  race,  into  which  the  child  is  to  be  inducted 
through  his  play  with  these  Play-gifts.  For 
man  moves  back  in  order  to  move  forward ;  he 


300  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

must  reach  behind  and  take  up  into  himself  his 
presuppositions,  his  given  world,  in  order  to 
reach  forward  and  grasp  the  precious  boon,  the 
end  of  all  striving,  freedom. 

Now,  in  the  Occupations  as  here  set  forth, 
there  is  just  this  return  to  and  reconstruction  of 
what  has  been  hitherto  given  in  the  Quantitative 
Gifts  specially;  the  great  realm  of  the  extended, 
the  spatial,  in  general,  the  realm  of  matter  is 
transformed  through  its  qualities  into  new  quan- 
titative shapes  by  the  child.  Undoubtedly  there 
is  still  in  the  Occupations  something  given, 
namely  the  material  to  be  transformed ;  so  we 
may  call  them  Gifts  too,  but  of  a  different  kind, 
namely,  qualitative. 

Particularly,  then,  do  the  Quantitative  Gifts 
represent  the  given  element,  which,  however,  has 
to  be  taken  up  by  the  child,  learned,  appropri- 
ated. They  have  been  called  the  alphabet  of 
form,  showing  first  the  total  form  or  solid,  and 
then  proceeding  to  surface,  line,  and  point.  The 
child,  having  learned  this  alphabet,  applies  it  to 
the  reproduction  of  form  in  the  Occupations. 
Just  as  he  proceeds  from  the  total  word  to 
syllable,  letter,  and  sound,  and  then  reconstructs 
them  in  speech  in  order  to  express  himself,  so 
he  does  here.  He  has  to  get  possession  of  the 
two  alphabets,  those  of  Form  and  of  Speech, 
ere  he  can  mould  the  silent  yet  soulful  statue 
which  is  made  of  clay,  or  the  speaking  statue 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     301 

(so  called  by  an  old  Greek  philosopher)  which 
is  made  of  the  word.  Thus  for  his  self-utter- 
ance, which  is  self-realization,  he  is  laying  under 
contribution  two  sense-worlds,  those  of  sight 
and  of  sound. 

The  Occupations,  through  this  reproduction  of 
material  forms,  introduce  an  industrial  element ; 
they  connect  closely  with  the  useful  arts  of  man- 
kind. Sewing,  weaving,  modeling,  drawing  are 
some  of  the  Occupations,  and  have  been  employed 
from  time  immemorial  by  the  race  for  the  pro- 
duction of  its  fabrics.  But,  in  the  case  of  the  child, 
their  object  is  primarily  educative,  not  utilitarian ; 
they  are  to  develop  the  total  man,  not  the 
weaver,  the  sempstress,  the  designer;  they  are  to 
unfold  that  potential  Ego  into  the  reality,  thereby 
giving  mastery  over  all  externality  and  furnish- 
ing a  free  home  on  this  earth.  Herein  the 
Occupations  lead  the  little  child  toward  the  great 
end  of  education,  which  is  the  remaking  by  and 
for  himself  of  the  made  world,  transforming  it 
into  the  abode  of  freedom.  The  grand  destiny 
of  industry  and  of  industrial  progress  is  to  trans- 
shape  outer  material  Nature  into  man's  own  forms, 
so  that  he  beholds  on  all  sides  the  image  of  him- 
self as  a  self-determined  being,  and  dwells  in  a 
self -created  universe,  harmoniously  realizing  his 
divine  nature.  Thus  he  is  returning  to  God,  his 
creator  and  prototype,  in  the  most  profound  re- 
ligious sense. 


302  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

And  this  activity  of  the  child  in  the  kinder- 
garden  reaches  out  beyond  his  individual  self  into 
the  social  sphere  of  which  he  is  a  member.  In 
remaking  these  fabrics  above  mentioned,  he  is 
also  remaking  the  Industrial  Order,  of  which 
they  are  part  and  product  originally,  he  is  re- 
producing the  great  social  organism,  making  him- 
self a  member  thereof,  and  rebuilding  it  in  his 
activity  as  it  once  built  itself.  Through  these 
Occupations  he  becomes  the  little  architect  of 
society,  which  received  him  at  his  birth,  but 
which  he  has  to  be  eternally  re-creating  by  his 
labor,  that  it  be  his  own. 

Moreover,  this  pre-formed  world  of  matter 
which  surrounds  and  determines  the  child,  and 
which  he  has  to  re-form,  has  another  suggestion — 
that  of  his  institutional  relations  —  which  must 
here  be  taken  into  account.  In  fact  just  the 
total  movement  of  the  Gifts  and  Occupations  as 
already  unfolded  is  a  preparation  for  institutional 
life  and  a  discipline  in  institutional  virtue.  As 
the  child  is  born  into  a  pre-established  order  of 
Nature,  so  he  is  born  into  a  pre-established 
ethical  order,  that  of  Law  and  Institutions;  and 
as  he  is  to  take  up  and  make  over  the  one,  so  he 
is  to  take  up  and  make  over  the  other,  both  unto 
the  end  of  his  higher  freedom.  Nay,  in  going 
through  the  process  of  the  one,  that  of  Nature, 
as  unfolded  in  the  Gifts  and  Occupations,  he  is 
developing  in  himself  the  process  of  the  other, 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     303 

he  is  becoming  unconsciously  institutional. 
Family,  State,  Society,  Church  are  the  pre- 
established  institutional  order  into  which  he 
comes  through  birth,  and  which  nourish  him 
with  their  spiritual  mother's-milk  during  infancy. 
But  this  is  not  the  end :  he  is  to  make  them 
over,  re-establish,  reproduce  them ;  becoming  a 
man,  he  is  to  recreate  the  Family  in  his 
own  household;  he  is  perpetually  to  renew 
the  State,  for  he  is  the  final  law-maker; 
especially  is  he  to  preserve  and  reconstruct 
the  Social  Order  in  accord  with  the  new 
time  and  the  new  idea ;  nor  let  him  forget  the 
oldest  of  the  old,  the  good  grandmother  of  us 
all,  the  Church,  and  add  to  her  aged  bones  a 
breath  of  his  regenerating  spirit,  for  she  needs  it. 
It  is,  accordingly,  the  emphatic  judgment  of 
the  educator,  wrho  has  insight  into  his  vocation, 
that  these  Gifts  and  Occupations  transform  the 
destructive  spirit  of  the  child  into  the  construc- 
tive, and  will  make  him  a  positive,  not  a  negative 
being.  The  tender  little  soul  is  acquiring, 
through  the  habit  of  always  re-forming  the  pre- 
formed in  the  realm  of  Nature,  the  far  deeper 
habit  of  always  re-establishing  the  pre-established 
in  the  realm  of  Spirit.  He  cannot  rest  in  physical 
destruction  nor  in  moral  negation ;  he  becomes  a 
builder,  not  merely  of  an  outward  structure,  but 
of  the  inner  temple  of  life.  Such  a  person  will 
not  become  the  architect  of  ruin  on  the  one  hand, 


304  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

nor  on  the  other  an  asphyxiated  specimen  of  a 
soul  stuck  up  somewhere  in  the  museum  of  the 
past;  neither  stationary  nor  revolutionary,  but 
evolutionary  in  the  best  sense ;  neither  a  fetich- 
worshiper  at  the  one  extreme,  nor  a  God-denier 
at  the  other,  but  an  adorer  of  the  Universal 
Spirit  into  whose  unity  with  himself  he  is  to  rise 
in  vision  and  in  deed. 

On  this  career  of  spiritual  return  to  his  fountain 
head  we  start  the  child  in  the  Occupations.  He 
goes  back  and  reshapes  those  forms  which  were 
first  shaped  for  him  and  handed  to  him  from 
the  outside.  It  is  a  great  beginning;  he  is  the. 
young  Prometheus,  not  only  the  maker  of  out- 
ward forms  of  Nature,  but  the  shaper  of  Man, 
the  shaper  of  himself.  For  in  this  return  and 
reconstruction  of  the  previous  Gifts,  lurks  the 
return  and  reconstruction  of  himself;  once  born, 
he  is  now  being  born  again ;  once  creator,  he  is 
now  creating  himself;  in  the  eternal  process  of 
renewal  and  rejuvenation,  he  gets  older  and  wiser 
and  worthier.  The  days  may  whirl  him  onward 
in  the  time-stream,  but  he  is  always  coming 
nearer  to  the  everlasting  source ;  he  is  unfolding 
into  his  true  selfhood  in  self -creative  unity  with 
the  Divine.  Such  is  the  ever-active  palingenesis, 
the  never-ceasing  regeneration  of  the  spirit,  which 
is  the  inner  process  of  all  education  worthy  of  the 
name,  as  well  as  the  deepest  religious  act  of  the 
soul..  The  new  birth  is  every  day,  the  child  has 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     305 

to  go  through  it  even  in  play;  playing  with 
material  shapes,  with  blocks  of  wood  and  lumps 
of  clay,  he  is  calling  out  his  own  soul,  reshaping 
it,  renewing  it,  moulding  it  into  harmony  with 
the  divine  order  of  the  world.  For  the  child  to 
play  the  grand  palingenesis  of  the  soul,  is  a  daring 
thought,  appearing  impious  possibly  at  the  first 
glance,  yet  it  is  just  the  deepest  thought  of 
Froebel,  which  he  brings  to  the  little  child  in 
play  by  means  of  these  Gifts. 

This  reproduction  is,  then,  the  essential  fact 
of  the  Occupations ;  in  them  the  child  is  repro- 
ducing himself  as  a  member  of  the  social  order 
about  him,  and  is  also  in  his  way  reproducing 
that  social  order.  Thus  he  is  getting  possession 
of  the  institutional  world  by  creating  it  anew  — 
which,  indeed,  is  the  final  end  of  all  education. 

Criticism.  It  is  often  said  by  kindergardners 
that  the  chief  difference  between  the  Gifts  and 
the  Occupations  is  that  the  former  are  to  be 
put  back  into  their  boxes  in  the  same  condition 
in  which  they  were  taken  out,  while  in  the  Occu- 
pations the  material  is  to  keep  the  shape 
impressed  upon  it  by  the  child.  In  the  one  case 
the  forms  are  permanent,  in  the  other  transitory. 
Manifestly  this  distinction  is  not  inherent,  but 
external  and  accidental.  With  a  little  glue  or 
paste  the  building-blocks  can  be  made  to  stick 
together,  and  so  employed  for  permanent  forms; 

20 


306  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

while  the  material  of  the  Occupations  can  often 
be  restored  sufficiently  after  use  that  it  may  be 
employed  again.  The  comparative  cheapness 
and  abundance  of  the  Occupation  material  seem 
to  be  the  main  factors  in  determining  the  given 
distinction.  The  forms  of  the  Gifts  are  easily 
made  permanent,  and  the  forms  of  the  Occupa- 
tions are  easily  made  transitory ;  thus  the  criterion 
readily  reverses  itself  —  which  fact  makes  it  no 
criterion,  that  is,  no  essential  criterion.  As  a  useful 
device  in  manipulation,  the  distinction  may  be 
stated,  but  not  by  any  means  as  the  creative, 
genetic  thought  which  differentiates  the  Gifts  and 
Occupations. 

So  the  given  distinction  does  not  distinguish, 
at  least  not  in  any  vital  sense.  And  this  leads 
us  to  look  into  all  the  current  distinctions  in 
regard  to  the  present  subject,  which,  we  have  to 
think  from  our  contact  with  kindergarden  train- 
ing, needs  a  critical  overhauling. 

It  is  important  for  the  kindergardner  to  ex- 
amine the  terms  which  have  been  in  common  use 
to  designate  the  difference  between  the  Gifts  and 
the  Occupations.  One  of  the  most  valuable  les- 
sons which  the  philosopher  Kant  has  taught  us  is 
to  criticise  our  categories  —  those  fundamental 
words  upon  which  our  thought  seems  to  repose 
as  its  final  utterance.  Something  of  this  sort  the 
student  should  attempt. 

It  is   often  said  that  the  Gifts  are  a  means  of 


FROEBEVS  PLAT  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     807 

impression,  while  the  Occupations  are  a  means 
of  expression.  But  certainly  when  the  child  con- 
structs with  the  Building  Gifts  something  of  its 
own,  these  are  a  means  of  expression.  Such 
maybe,  indeed,  his  best  expression ;  if  his  bent 
be  architectural,  there  will  be  a  better  expression 
in  this  way  for  him  than  in  any  Occupation. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  child  models  an 
object,  say  a  Cube,  all  observers  agree  in  saying 
that  he  receives  a  stronger  and  more  exact  im- 
pression of  that  object  than  when  he  simply  sees 
it  or  even  builds  with  it.  Modeling,  therefore, 
is  a  means  of  impression,  one  of  the  very  best, 
probably  better  than  any  Gift,  yet  modeling  is  an 
Occupation  in  the  kindergarden  list.  It  takes 
but  little  testing  to  see  that  both  the  Gifts  and 
Occupations  are  or  can  be  a  means  of  both  ex- 
pression and  impression.  So  we  have  to  say  that 
these  terms  (or  categories)  do  not  give  the  differ- 
ence sought  for. 

Why  then  have  they  been  used  and  reiterated 
in  kindergarden  training-classes  all  over  the 
world  apparently?  Undoubtedly  an  impression 
received  from  the  Gifts,  like  that  of  the  Cube, 
may  be  modeled  or  drawn  in  the  Occupations, 
which  fact  is  expression.  But  the  opposite  is 
also  true ;  an  impression  may  be  and  is  expressed 
in  the  Gifts  everywhere  through  its  forms.  And 
the  same  holds  of  the  Occupations.  So  the 
time-honored  distinction  does  not  distinguish. 


308  THE  PS YCI10L OGT  OF 

Another  statement  often  found  in  the  manuals 
and  repeated  from  mouth  to  mouth  as  a  kind  of 
wonder-working  formula,  is  that  in  the  Gifts  the 
'child  investigates,  while  in  the  Occupations  he 
creates.  This,  however,  is  less  true  than  the 
preceding.  Certainly  every  kindergardner  calls 
for  creative  activity  in  the  Gifts,  be  it  in  building, 
in  stick-laying  or  in  the  manifold  production  of 
forms.  And  on  the  other  hand  if  we  are  to  use 
the  inner  qualities  of  matter  in  the  Occupations, 
they  require  investigation  in  a  deeper  sense  than 
the  Gifts.  Still  we  have  to  do  both  in  both,  just  as 
in  the  last  case,  and  the  distinction  does  not  hold. 
The  same  is  true  of  a  rather  pretty  antithesis 
which  is  sometimes  given :  the  Gifts  are  a  key  to 
the  outside  world,  the  Occupations  a  door  to  the 
inside  world.  Let  the  student  try,  and  see  if 
both  the  key  and  the  door  do  not  fit  both  the 
Gifts  and  Occupations.  Certainly  the  kinder- 
gardner would  affirm  that  the  Gifts  are  educative, 
that  they  unlock  the  inside  world  of  the  child 
quite  as  much  as  the  outside  world. 

But  the  favorite  formulation  of  the  above 
mentioned  difference  is  that  the  Gifts  are  analytic 
and  the  Occupations  synthetic.  This  statement 
is  repeated  in  the  manuals,  being  placed  usually 
first,  and  is  learned  by  heart  as  a  kind  of  sacred 
infallible  text  which  the  student  is  to  accept  with- 
out questioning.  But  the  kindergardner  soon 
discovers,  if  she  thinks  at  all,  that  her  practice 


FKOEBEU  8  PL  A  T  GIFTS.— OCCUPA  TIONS.     309 

contradicts  the  above  distinction  at  every  point. 
The  very  essence  of  the  Building  Gifts  is  that 
they  are  synthetic;  to  build  is  to  put  together. 
In  the  simplest  of  the  Gifts,  the  third,  the  Cube 
is  indeed  divided,  analyzed  if  you  please,  but 
only  in  order  to  be  reunited,  synthesized.  It 
most  deeply  violates  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of 
Froebel  to  permit  separation  without  restoration, 
and  even  to  think  analysis  without  synthesis.  It 
may  be  declared  unhesitatingly  that  every  Gift 
has  both  analysis  and  synthesis,  and  has  them 
not  apart,  but  in  a  process  which  corresponds  to 
that  of  mind,  of  the  Ego.  Indeed  every  Play- 
gift  has  to  have  such  a  process,  else  it  would  not 
be  educative. 

When  we  come  to  the  Occupations  we  find  that 
they  too  are  both  analytic  and  synthetic.  The 
attack  upon  a  piece  of  paper  by  a  needle  or  a 
knife  is  a  divisive  or  analytic  act,  though  it  is 
usually  the  first  thing  the  child  does  in  the 
Occupations.  The  same  ultimate  process  of  the 
Ego  is  seen  everywhere  in  the  Occupations, 
though  taking  on  new  forms  and  imparting  new 
lessons. 

One  has    sometimes  to  think  that  those  who 

r  — 

write  books  for  kindergardners  seem  specially 
gifted  in  ridding  themselves  of  all  thought,  which 
is  indeed  forever  making  trouble.  We  shall 
extract  from  a  recent  manual  two  propositions 
which  follow  each  other  directly : 


310  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

1.  "The  Gifts  are  analytic,  the  Occupations 
synthetic." 

2.  "In  the  Gifts  there  is  combination,  in  the 
Occupations  the  material  is  transformed."     That 
is,  the  Gifts    show   synthesis,  the   Occupations 
analysis,  while  in  the  previous    proposition  the 
statement  ran  just  the  other  way. 

Such  is  an  example  of  Froebel's  law  of  oppo- 
sites,  but  with  the  mediation  left  out.  Still  the 
author  of  the  cited  statements  has  unconsciously 
told  the  truth :  there  are  both  analysis  and 
synthesis  in  both  the  Gifts  and  Occupations.  But 
the  main  question  is,  In  what  way?  Not  as  an 
unreconciled  contradiction,  but  as  the  living, 
self -harmonizing  process  of  the  Ego,  as  the 
Psychosis. 

So  great  has  been  the  authority  of  this  dis- 
tinction that  the  student  may  wish  to  hear  a 
little  bit  of  its  history.  It  undoubtedly  proceeds 
from  Hermann  Goldammer,  whose  kindergarden 
Manual  stands  in  deservedly  high  repute,  though 
in  the  present  case  we  have  to  criticise  its  posi- 
tion. Goldammer  takes  a  good  deal  of  credit  to 
himself  for  having  elaborated  this  distinction 
(see  his  Occupations  of  the  fiindergarden,  p.  10, 
Eng.  trans.),  which,  however,  he  claims  to  derive 
from  Froebel.  But  the  passage  in  Froebel  to 
which  he  alludes  does  not  bear  out  his  interpreta- 
tion. Froebel  speaks  of  the  return  out  of  the 
stage  of  division  which  has  given  surface,  line, 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     311 

point,  or  the  abstract  magnitudes  of  the  Gifts. 
This  return  to  a  whole  can  be  indicated,  he  thinks, 
by  putting  together  pin-heads  on  a  cushion ;  in 
this  way  we  can  see  the  point  passing  into  the 
line,  then  the  line  inclosing  a  surface.  The  same 
thing  can  be  shown  by  beads,  etc.  Such  a  pro- 
cedure, however,  is  hardly  an  Occupation,  but  a 
Gift ;  the  return  which  Froebel  speaks  of  must  be, 
therefore,  through  the  Gifts.  Moreover,  in  the 
passage  (which  is  quite  fragmentary),  Froebel 
makes  no  distinction  between  Gifts  and  Occupa- 
tions, not  even  in  name.  (See  the  passage  in 
Lange's  German  edition  of  Froebel,  Pddagogik 
des  Kindergartens,  s.  575.  A  translation  has 
appeared  in  Miss  Jarvis'  second  volume  Educa- 
tion by  Development,  pp.  332-4.) 

As  far  as  we  can  see,  therefore,  Froebel  does 
not  make  the  distinction  which  Goldamrner 
attributes  to  him.  But  supposing  that  he  does, 
or  supposing  that  we  take  Goldammer's  dis- 
tinction on  its  own  merits,  it  still  does  not  hold 
for  all  the  Gifts  and  all  the  Occupations.  The 
analytic  principle  would  apply  only  to  the  point, 
line,  and  surface,  or  Gifts  of  abstract  magnitude, 
Avhich  are  not  by  any  means  all  or  even  a  fair 
half  of  the  Gifts.  On  the  other  hand  the  syn- 
thetic principle  would  apply  only  to  the  industrial 
Occupations  (such  as  sewing,  pricking,  weaving), 
which  are  not  all  of  the  Occupations.  Hence 
Goldammer's  distinction  seems  inadequate  when 


312  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

tested  by  a  complete  application  to  its  subject- 
matter. 

Still  the  question  will  rise  in  the  mind  of  the 
reader :  Is  there  no  ground  at  all  for  the  univer- 
sal acceptance  of  these  terms  (analytic  and 
synthetic)  on  the  part  of  kindergardners ?  So 
much  may  be  granted :  if  by  the  term  analytic 
the  second  or  separate  stage  in  the  total  process 
of  the  Gifts  and  Occupations  is  meant,  then  the 
Gifts  (quantitative)  may  be  called  analytic. 
Some  such  meaning  may  vaguely  lie  in  the  mind 
of  the  writer,  though  no  definition  of  the  kind 
can  be  found  in  any  manual.  Still  further,  if 
by  the  terra  synthetic  the  third  stage,  which  is 
the  return  and  reproduction  of  what  has  gone 
before,  is  meant,  then  the  Occupations  may  be 
called  synthetic.  Some  such  meaning  may  have 
been  felt  in  the  word,  but  it  certainly  has  not 
been  expressed  with  any  degree  of  definiteness. 
The  fact,  however,  of  such  a  return  has  been 
often  declared,  often  by  Froebel  himself.  But 
it  is  far-fetched  to  call  it  synthetic,  to  say  the 
least. 

Such  is  our  critique  of  the  categories,  or 
terms  ordinarily  used  to  express  the  difference 
between  the  Gifts  and  Occupations.  They  indi- 
cate no  essential  difference,  they  hold  true  of  one 
division  as  well  as  of  the  other,  unless  they  be 
explained  away  into  meaning  something  which 
they  do  not  mean.  Many  kindergardners  have 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— OCCUPATIONS.     313 

already  felt  and  expressed  the  futility  of  the 
mentioned  distinctions ;  still  it  would  be  a  bad 
business  to  destroy  even  a  poor  foundation  and 
leave  nothing  in  its  place.  Hence  our  attempt 
to  unfold  a  new  set  of  distinctions,  whose  valid- 
ity is  now  to  be  tested  by  the  kindergarden  tri- 
bunal sitting  in  judgment. 

We  must  at  this  point  return  to  the  character- 
istic which  we  found  to  be  the  distinctive  princi- 
ple of  the  Occupations,  namely  Reproduction  of 
the  given,  that  is,  of  the  Gifts.  We  are  now 
ready  to  take  an  organic  survey  of  the  field  which 
lies  before  us.  Accordingly,  in  the  ordering  of 
the  Occupations,  we  must  employ  the  fact  of  the 
Reproduction  of  the  Gifts  (quantitative)  as  the 
fundamental  principle,  and  hence  as  that  which 
organizes  the  subject-matter.  On  this  line  we 
shall  note  the  triple  movement. 

I.  The  Reproduction  of  Concrete  Magnitudes 
immediately,  in  their  three  dimensions  —  length, 
breadth,  thickness.     The   preceding  solid  Gifts, 
from  the    Second    on,  are   to  be  reproduced  in 
some  formable    material,  such    as  clay   or  wax. 
Abstract  Magnitudes  (Surface,  Line,  Point)  are 
present,    but   implicit,    unseparated   from    their 
solids. 

Here  is  the  place  of  Modeling,  we  may  call  it 
the  Plastic  Occupation. 

II.  The    Reproduction    of   Abstract'  Magni- 
tudes—  Point,  Line,  Surface  —  which  are  now 


314  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

explicit  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  hand 
are  connected  with  or  wrought  into  other  mate- 
rial things. 

Here  lies  distinctly  the  separative  stage  of  the 
present  sphere.  In  the  first  place,  it  reproduces 
the  separative  stage  of  the  Derived  Gifts,  namely, 
the  Abstract  Magnitudes,  which  are  not  now  given 
to  the  child,  but  are  to  be  created  by  him  in  some 
way.  In  the  second  place,  the  twofoldness  be- 
comes manifest  in  the  fact  that  the  abstract  (or 
ideal)  forms — Point,  Line,  Surface —  are  to  be 
made  real,  visible,  nay,  tangible  in  some  material 
object;  thus  the  abstract  and  the  concrete  (or 
the  ideal  and  the  real)  are  both  present,  though 
united.  The  great  principle  of  the  present  sphere 
is  that  the  Abstract  Magnitudes,  as  thought  or 
ideal,  are  the  transforming  power  of  the  solid 
universe.  Very  profoundly,  therefore,  does  the 
present  stage  reach  back  and  connect  with  the 
corresponding  stage  in  the  Gifts. 

This  is  the  realm  of  what  is  often  called  the 
Economic  Arts,  and  so  we  may  name  them  the 
Industrial  Occupations,  being  many  and  manifold. 
The  plural  indicates  their  multiplicity,  which,  in- 
deed, springs  from  the  separative  character  of 
the  present  stage. 

•  ///.  The  Reproduction  of  Concrete  Magni- 
tudes in  and  through  the  Abstract  Magnitudes  — 
Surface,  Line  (Outline)  and  Point.  That  is, 
the  latter  take  up  into  themselves  and  reproduce 


FROEBEV  S  PL  A  Y  GIFTS.— OCC  UFA  TIONS,     3 15 

the  solid  object,  which  seems  to  have  the  three 
dimensions,  but  has  not  in  reality. 

Here  we  have  Drawing,  which  we  name  the 
Graphic  Occupation. 

It  is  manifest  that  in  these  three  sets  of  Occu- 
pations —  the  Plastic,  the  Industrial,  and  the 
Graphic  —  we  have  a  Psychosis  of  Reproduction 
in  this  sphere.  The  first  is  immediate,  in  the 
material  object ;  the  second  is  separated,  abstract, 
yet  wrought  into  the  material  object ;  the  third 
is  the  return  to  the  Concrete,  which  is  now  re- 
produced through  the  Abstract. 

We  have  made  no  attempt  to  arrange  the 
various  properties  of  matter  which  are  brought 
out  in  the  Occupations,  such  as  elasticity,  plia- 
bility, tenacity,  etc.  One  of  these  properties, 
color,  has  a  special  place  in  the  present  division 
of  the  Play-Gifts.  It  is  in  one  sense  an  outer 
visible  property;  still  it  is  produced  by  an  im- 
pingement of  rays  of  light  upon  a  material 
object.  Thus  color  also  is  the  result  of  an  assault 
upon  matter,  which  thereby  is  made  to  reveal 
some  inner  quality  of  itself ;  indeed  color  may  be 
deemed  the  primary  visible  manifestation  of  the 
material  world,  showing  something  of  its  inner 
character  by  its  outer  Appearance  in  and  through 
light.  This  property  of  matter  also  the  child  is 
to  employ  and  to  order  in  the  Occupations. 


I. 

THE    PLASTIC    OCCUPATION. 

This  occupation  is  usually  called  Modeling  in 
the  kinder-garden.  Often  the  name  of  the  material 
is  added,  which  is  generally  clay.  The  word 
plastic  suggests  the  formative  character  of  the 
present  Occupation,  and  connects  it  with  Sculp- 
ture, which  is  supremely  the  Plastic  Art  and 
carries  us  back  at  once  to  ancient  Greece,  the 
home  of  the  noblest  statues.  Sculpture  takes 
the  human  shape  in  its  material  fullness,  in  its 
three  dimensions,  while  Painting  employs  sur- 
face, line  and  point,  or  the  Abstract  Magnitudes. 

The  Plastic  Occupation,  therefore,  seizes  and 

reproduces  the  material  object  immediately,  not 

as  mediated   through   the   Abstract  Magnitudes 

already  mentioned.     Not  every  object  made  in 

(316) 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— MODELING.      317 

clay  belongs  to  Modeling  in  the  sense  here  given ; 
a  box  molded  out  of  clay  is  still  a  box. 

We  place  Modeling  first  among  the  Occupa- 
tions (or  Qualitative  Gifts),  as  it  is  the  reproduc- 
tion of  Concrete  Magnitudes,  that  is,  of  forms 
which  have  the  three  dimensions,  length,  breadth, 
and  thickness.  It  returns  to  the  first  or  solid 
Gifts  and  makes  them  over. 

Modeling,  therefore,  takes  the  object  immedi- 
ately, in  its  sensuous  fullness,  and  reproduces  it 
in  that  fullness.  The  child  seizes  the  object  just 
as  it  is,  without  the  Abstract  Magnitudes,  which 
come  later.  He  creates  his  form  out  of  the 
given  material  by  direct  fiat.  Modeling  is  the 
most  immediate  manifestation  of  creative  power 
which  man  can  show,  and  for  this  reason  has 
been  celebrated  in  all  ages.  It  teaches  the  child 
in  the  very  beginning  of  his  career,  that  the 
outer  world  in  its  most  refractory  elements  is 
plastic,  and  will  yield  to  his  will  and  his  thought. 
He  starts,  by  means  of  Modeling,  to  realizing 
that  the  material  universe  is  to  be  transformed  by 
him,  that  he  is  to  be  the  reshaper  of  Nature. 

Though  all  matter  can  be  modeled  ultimately, 
still  there  are  some  materials  especially  appropri- 
ate for  the  child.  He  naturally  takes  to  clay  or 
mud ;  he  begins  to  transform  the  very  earth  be- 
neath his  feet;  what  he  stands  upon,  he  will 
make  over.  Of  all  things  given  to  man,  the 
earth  would  seem  to  be  the  least  dispensable, 


318  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

yet  the  little  child  in  his  little  way  starts  to  reform 
the  earth  by  means  of  mud-pies  and  dirt-houses. 

In  the  kindergarden  this  primitive  tendency 
of  the  child  is  not  neglected.  A  fine  sort  of 
clay  is  used  mainly,  though  the  sand-pile  too  has 
its  place,  along  with  wax  and  other  material  of 
the  kind.  Turn  the  little  fellow  loose  and  let 
him  form  the  earthy  stuff,  for  thus  he  is  really 
forming  himself. 

If  the  child  goes  back  to  the  first  Gift  and 
commences  to  make  over  what  he  started  with, 
he  will  model  the  Ball,  the  round  Ball  out  of  clay. 
This,  to  me  at  least,  has  a  far-reaching  suggest- 
iveness,  and  I  cannot  help  thinking  something  of 
the  same  kind  enters  the  soul  of  the  child,  though 
dimly.  For  he  is  making  out  of  dust  the  earth 
itself  in  form,  and  this  is  the  very  first  thing  he 
does  in  his  creative  activity;  he  reproduces  as 
his  earliest  work  an  earth-ball  made  out  of  verit- 
able earth,  and  possibly  whirls  it  from  his  hand 
into  space.  The  little  child  cannot  help  re- 
enacting  the  Creator  of  the  Universe,  from 
whom,  indeed,  comes  that  spiritual  spark  of  his, 
which  now  manifests  itself  in  a  sudden  scintilla- 
tion by  world-making. 

So  the  child  has  begun  to  reproduce  his  grand 
outward  presupposition,  the  very  earth  upon 
which  he  reposes  as  his  primeval  mother,  forming 
it  as  does  its  Maker.  Yet  all  this  is  done  in  play  ; 
he,  in  his  first  creative  act,  plays  creation  itself. 


FEOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— MODELING.     319 

And  if  he  be  really  God-sent,  what  else  can  he 
do? 

The  great  educative  fact  in  this  action  is  that 
the  child  is  unfolding  what  is  deepest  and  best 
within  him,  what  may  be  truly  called  the  divine 
element  of  his  nature.  The  original  creative  soul 
which  made  all  things  he  shares  in,  and  now  he 
shows  his  participation  in  the  same,  he  is  de- 
veloping the  God-like  in  himself.  Then,  too, 
in  forming  the  Ball,  rounding  it  off  to  complete- 
ness, he  is  forming  and  rounding  himself  off;  he 
is  slowly  finding  that  invisible  center  which  he 
has  as  well  as  the  Ball,  and  which  always 
determines  the  outside,  the  periphery  of  exis- 
tence. 

In  ordering  the  Occupations,  Modeling  is, 
accordingly,  placed  first,  though  in  the  Manuals 
it  is  often  found  the  last  or  next  to  the  last  on 
the  list.  It  may  be  said  to  represent  better  than 
any  other  Occupation  the  primordial  creative  act, 
as  hinted  in  Art  and  in  the  My  thus  of  peoples. 
The  keynote  sounding  all  through  the  Occupa- 
tions is  reproduction;  what  has  been  given  here- 
tofore, is  to  be  transformed;  the  child  is  to 
return  and  begin  to  make  its  starting-point. 

The  next  thing  to  be  considered  is  the  inner 
quality  which  Modeling  pre-supposes  in  the 
material,  for  this  quality  is  now  a  main  element 
in  the  present  stage,  which  also  bears  the  name 
of  Qualitative  Gifts.  What  peculiar  property, 


320  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

then,  does  matter  reveal  to  the  modeler,  when  it 
is  handled  or  assailed? 

It  is  evident  that  formability  is  the  essential 
qualitative  fact  which  underlies  this  Occupation. 
The  external  world  is  formable,  capable  of 
receiving  a  new  shape  from  the  hands  of  man, 
who  has,  indeed,  just  this  as  a  leading  part  in  his 
terrestrial  vocation  —  to  shape  anew  the  material 
universe  and  to  make  it  the  image  and  the  bearer 
of  his  spirit. 

So  the  child  begins  his  vocation,  or  an  im- 
portant part  of  it,  in  Modeling,  being  sent  back  to 
the  beginning  and  led  to  re-form  the  pre-formed 
in  the  most  immediate  way  possible.  Such  is  the 
fundamental  educative  note  struck  here  at  the 
start  of  the  Occupations,  winning  the  child  by  its 
profound  harmony  with  his  own  instinct,  and 
training  him  to  freedom,  the  great  ethical  end  of 
his  existence.  For  he  has  now  to  make  or  begin 
to  make  his  own  presuppositions,  and  that  which 
before  conditioned  and  determined  him,  he  now 
conditions  and  determines  out  of  his  own  voli- 
tion. Thus  he  commences  to  hew  out  for  him- 
self the  first  stones  which  are  to  be  built  into  the 
temple  of  freedom,  of  self-determination. 

All  manual  training  has  to  have  this  principle 
in  view,  in  order  to,  be  educative;  hand,  eye, 
muscle,  observation,  perception  are  to  be  strength- 
ened, still  these  are  but  means,  in  the  final  out- 
look, to  the  supreme  end,  which  is  the  free  man 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS,— MODELING.      321 

in  a  free  world  among  free  men.  With  this  idea 
the  commonest  act  in  the  daily  humdrum  of  life 
is  to  be  filled  and  transfigured.  The  child  makes 
a  start  when  he  models  the  visible  world  about 
him,  thus  recreating  and  perpetually  renewing^ 
himself  within  as  well  as  his  environment  without. 

The  child  will  take  delight  in  getting  acquainted 
with  his  material.  He  introduces  himself  to  it 
by  patting  it,  pinching  it,  punching  it,  testing  its 
formability  by  thrusting  his  fingers  into  it, 
squeezing  it  and  showing  a  multitude  of  other 
caresses.  He  must  treat  it  somehow  as  he  treats 
his  mother  whom  he  loves,  sticking  his  forefinger 
into  her  eye,  tweaking  her  nose,  and  pulling  her 
hair.  He  even  notes  the  response  of  the  mate- 
rial which  shows  every  act  of  his  by  a  new  form ; 
very  submissive  is  the  clay  before  him,  more  sub- 
missive than  his  mother,  who  after  all  cannot 
have  her  eyes  gouged  out  or  her  face  scratched 
and  beaten  like  the  passive  clay.  The  father  will 
cry  out:  "Give  the  child  some  clay,  my  dea,r, 
and  let  him  mould  that  anew,  for  your  face  is 
that  which  I  wish  to  keep.  That  in  my  eye  is 
already  perfect  and  needs  no  re-modeling." 

So  the  child  will  come  to  love  the  material,  and 
will  soon  find  its  peculiar  quality,  called  here 
formability,  or  the  capacity  of  taking  and  retain- 
ing form.  Hitherto,  in  the  Gifts,  his  material 
was  presented  to  him  already  formed,  and  he 
combined  its  given  forms,  but  now  he  sees  him- 

21 


£22  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  O# 

self  the  maker  of  these  given  forms.  So  he  be- 
holds his  Will  made  visible  in  the  reproduction  of 
form ;  every  little  act  leaves  its  impress  on  the 
material ;  he,  changing  it,  can  change  the  outer 
world,  and  he  comes  to  know  himself  as  a  world- 
transformer,  outwardly  and  inwardly. 

Formabilily .  Repeatedly  the  attention  of  the 
reader  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  Modeling 
rests  upon  the  formable  quality  of  matter,  and 
that  the  formability  of  the  material  world  enters 
into  the  consciousness  of  the  child  through  the 
present  Occupation  specially.  How  important 
such  a  conception  is  in  an  industrial  epoch,  need 
not  here  be  dwelt  upon,  as  it  may  be  considered 
later.  But  the  earnest  student  will  wish  at  this 
stage  to  take  a  rapid  glance  at  the  immediate 
formable  elements  around  him. 

1.  The  air  you  breathe  is  formable,  supremely 
so ;  every  word  you  speak  is  a  forming  of  the 
air,  and  a  transmission  of  that  form  indefinitely 
ill  every  direction.  Indeed  the  soundless  breath 
is  separated  from  the  vast  aerial  mass,  formed, 
individualized.  An  old  Greek  philosopher  called 
words  speaking  statues,  with  a  metaphor  taken 
from  the  sculptor  who  hews  the  stone  into  shape. 
The  child,  beginning  to  speak  with  an  infantile 
babble,  is  practicing  a  kind  of  modeling  out  of 
air,  making  rude,  short-lived  statues  of  speech, 
and  Draining  himself  day  in  day  out,  till  his  air- 
model  assumes  the  shape  which  is  correct.  In 


FBOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— MODELING.      323 

learning  to  talk,  he  has  to  make  over  what  nature 
has  given,  the  very  atmosphere  around  him,  and 
impress  upon  it  his  ideas,  yes  himself.  Thus  all 
literature  may  be  regarded  as  a  kind  of  speaking 
art-gallery,  extending  down  Time  and  giving  form 
to  the  best  thoughts  of  the  best  men  of  the  ages. 

But  air  is  not  visible,  its  forms  appeal  not  to 
sight  but  to  hearing,  and  thus  are  limited  to  one 
sense  which  gives  merely  succession  and  hence  is 
laden  with  the  vanishing.  So  we  turn  to  a  seen 
element,  which  is  also  formable. 

2.  Water  is  capable  of  form,  yet  it  also  soon 
loses  its  form,  and  thus  shows  to  vision  the  eter- 
nal transformation,  the  never-ceasing  death  and 
birth  of  material  form.  Because  of  its  formable 
character,  children  love  to  play  in  water,  to  wade, 
splash,  swim  in  its  soft  embrace.  It  is  so  yield- 
ing, so  responsive,  so  patient  of  every  childish 
caprice,  taking  every  blow  and  closing  up  the 
wound  as  if  nothing  could  hurt  it,  or  estrange 
its  placid  love.  No  wonder  that  the  child  is  fond 
of  the  water,  and  is  going  to  make  its  acquaint- 
ance in  spite  of  all  prohibitions. 

Water  has  in  it  a  sort  of  mediating  principle, 
it  carries  heat  and  cold,  it  cleanses,  it  will  pick 
up  and  bear  off  that  other  element,  the  earthy, 
when  too  persistent  in  .its  attentions.  By  nature 
water  is  transparent,  yet  is  ready  to  receive 
nearly  everything  and  hide  it  and  spirit  it  away 
secretly  in  its  bosom.  Receptive,  often  colored 


324  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

by  what  it  receives,  determined  from  without, 
water  has  been  called  the  neutral  principle  in 
nature,  a  kind  of  impartial  mean  between  all 
things. 

Probably  because  of  its  f  ormability,  water  was 
the  first  principle  of  the  first  philosophy  of  the 
Occident,  which  opens  with  Greek  Thales  and 
his  Ionic  School.  Prophetic  of  the  rising  spirit 
of  Greece  was  this  early  philosophy,  hinting  the 
Hellenic  plastic  art,  and  its  tendency  to  form 
anew  all  things  into  the  beautiful  shape.  * '  Water 
is  best,"  cries  Pindar,  the  Greek  lyric  poet,  an 
expression  which  seems  trivial  to  us  moderns,  but 
which  really  comes  out  of  the  depths  of  the 
Hellenic  soul,  which  is  formative  above  all 
others.  Goethe,  supremely  the  master  of  form 
both  in  nature  and  in  art,  has  not  failed  to  give 
poetic  utterance  to  the  f  ormability  of  water  in 
his  great  reconstruction  of  the  Classic  World  in 
the  Second  Part  of  Faust.  The  sea  in  its 
movement  is  a  tireless  form-maker,  suggesting 
a  multitude  of  shapes  from  the  rapid  hand  of 
the  primeval  artist,  whose  work  the  Greek 
imagination  caught  up  and  re-embodied  in  myth 
and  art. 

The  child  is,  therefore,  to  learn  about  water 
through  play,  it  is  a  genuine  plaything  for  him. 
It  may  not  be  practicable  to  introduce  it  as  a 
Play-gift  into  the  kindergarden,  still  this  often 
has,  one  may  note  in  passing,  its  bathing-tub  for 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— MODELING.       325 

children,  some  of  whom  have  to  be  made  ac- 
quainted with  a  very  important  property  of  water 
before  anything  can  be  done  with  them. 

The  boy  will  take  to  the  running  stream  or  to 
the  swimming  pool ;  it  is  claimed  by  scientists 
that  he  still  has  rudimentary  gills,  which,  though 
long  disused,  produce  in  him  an  itching  for  a 
little  development.  At  any  rate,  swimming  re- 
quires a  mastery  of  an  element,  and  has  usually 
to  be  learned,  though  some  boys  have  been 
known  to  swim  at  once  by  being  thrown  into  a 
pool  of  water,  paddling  out  like  a  dog  or  duck. 
But  others  drown  in  such  a  case,  so  there  would 
seem  to  be  a  difference  in  the  power  of  retaining 
ancestral  traits. 

3.  Clay  or  earth  is  another  formable  element, 
and  is  the  one  with  which  we  are  chiefly  con- 
cerned in  the  kindergarden.  Yet  we  have  to 
unite  the  two  elements  —  earth  and  water  —  for 
our  purpose.  Water  by  itself  is  just  a  little  too 
formable,  it  is  changeable,  perpetually  shifting 
its  form,  like  Proteus,  the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea  in 
the  Odyssey.  It  must  get  some  stability,  which 
is  obtained  by  mixing  it  with  the  more  refractory 
or  possibly  more  friable  earth,  so  that  the  fixed 
solid  matter  will  have  enough  of  the  watery 
formable  principle  to  be  easily  moulded.  Moist- 
ure enters  into  all  modeling  material,  which  is  to 
be  wrought  over  when  moist ;  then  the  humidity 
is  allowed  to  evaporate  and  the  form  remains. 


326  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Thus  the  clay  reverts  to  its  hard  or  brittle,  yet 
permanent  nature,  preserving,  however,  the  shape 
into  which  it  has  been  made. 

Water  has  another  striking  quality :  through 
an  increase  of  heat  it  turns  to  a  kind  of  air, 
vapor,  and  flies  off  into  the  atmosphere;  on  the 
other  hand,  through  a  diminution  of  heat  it 
becomes  a  solid,  earth-like,  and  loses  its  forma- 
bility.  From  this  point  of  view  water  is  a  kind 
of  mean  between  air  and  earth,  capable  of  turn- 
ing to  either  of  these  elements,  in  form  at  least. 

4.  In  this  little  survey  of  the  physical  elements 
and  their  for  inability,  we  must  also  mention  the 
fourth  one,  fire,  which  takes  form  through  itself, 
though  hardly  formable  like  the  other  three. 
Still  man  produces  marvelous  shapes  of  fire  in 
pyrotechny,  and  the  child  will  make  a  fiery  ring 
by  whirling  a  stick,  one  end  of  which  is  ignited. 

Fire  is  a  consumer  of  form,  yet  in  its  destructive 
act  it  assumes  form.  We  like  to  see  the  many 
shapes  which  the  blaze  takes  in  the  hearth,  as  it 
undoes  and  dissolves  wood  and  coal  and  other 
material ;  it  is  good  company  and  speaks  to  the 
soul  literally  with  tongues  of  fire.  But  this 
formative  power  is  more  its.own,  coming  from 
within,  not  so  amenable  to  the  hand  of  man,  like 
the  other  elements.  Still  man  gets  control  of  it 
and  turns  its  negative  energy  to  the  transforma- 
tion of  earth's  most  refractory  materials.  Iron 
will  not  dissolve  in  water  or  very  slowly,  but  it 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— MODELING.      327 

will  melt  in  a  hot  flame,  and  even  the  diamond 
can  be  burnt  up. 

Fire  too  has  its  relation  to  the  other  elements ; 
it  must,  like  man,  have  air  to  breathe,  it  must 
have  earth  to  feed  on,  and  water  will  quench  it, 
being  its  direct  opposite  and  antagonist. 

The  child  on  every  side  exists  in  relation  to 
these  four  primary  elements  of  nature,  which 
have  the  quality  of  formability  in  one  way  or 
other.  They  are  his  primordial  physical  environ- 
ment which  he  has  to  transform  in  order  to  live. 
Morever  in  modeling  he  visibly  employs  two  — 
earth,  water,  —  working  them  over  into  new 
forms,  so  that  he  is  becoming  conscious  of  himself 
as  the  formative  power  of  his  world.  Then  he 
is  secretly  using  in  the  same  act  two  other  ele- 
ments—  air  (breath)  and  fire  (heat). 

Thus  Modeling  introduces  the  child  into  the 
primitive  workshop  of  Nature,  for  she  also  is  in- 
cessantly employing  these  four  elements,  keeping 
them  in  a  perpetual  round  of  formation  and  trans- 
formation, which  constitutes  the  physical  life  of 
the  planet.  Nature  has  this  secret  plastic  power, 
she  is  always  forming  and  her  first  materials  are 
the  four  elements;  out  of  air,  earth,  water,  fire, 
she  shapes  the  apple  as  well  as  the  globe.  The 
child  in  modeling  uses  the  same  elements,  also 
forming  out  of  them  in  his  way  the  apple  and 
the  objects  around  him.  Thus  he  communes 
with  the  spirit  of  Nature,  enters  her  workship 


328  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

and  learns  her  art.  Indeed  he  has  this  formative 
instinct  along  with  Nature,  being  derived  himself 
from  Nature,  himself  a  product  of  her  plastic 
soul  and  inheriting  her  bent  in  this  direction. 

Manifestly  by  means  of  the  present  Occupa- 
tion something  which  lies  far  down  in  the  uncon- 
scious nature  of  the  child  is  called  forth  and 
begins  to  exercise  itself,  having  an  outlook  upon 
his  great  end,  namely  freedom.  He  is  learning 
the  f ormability  of  the  elements  and  therewith 
of  the  whole  external  world.  In  a  parallel  line 
he  is  discovering  and  practicing  the  f  ormability  of 
himself. 

In  Modeling,  therefore,  the  child  gets  a  pre- 
monition of  what  it  can  do  and  is  to  do  with 
this  material  universe.  Mould  it,  transform  it, 
make  it  over  into  the  house  of  freedom.  That 
which  is  given  first  of  all,  the  dust  of  the  earth, 
is  to  be  gathered  up  and  shaped  anew,  primarily 
into  a  ball,  which,  as  before  said,  is  a  reproduc- 
tion of  the  original  act  of  the  Creator.  The 
child  cannot  model  without  feeling  his  germinal 
power  of  creation  budding  within ;  he  is  getting 
the  Promethean  touch,  world-transforming,  yet 
also  self -transforming. 

TJie  Implement.  In  order  to  obtain  adequate 
possession  of  this  quality  of  matter,  formability, 
and  to  employ  it  for  his  purpose,  the  child  should 
in  due  time  be  given  an  implement. 

The  opposite  doctrine  has  often  been  declared 


FKOEBEVS  PLAT  GIFTS.— MODELING.     329 

with  emphasis,  namely,  that  the  child  in  the 
present  Occupation  should  use  no  implement,  but 
manipulate  the  clay  simply  with  his  hand.  Un- 
doubtedly he  has  first  to  obtain  control  of  his 
hand,  and  by  touch  to  understand  his  material, 
to  feel  it,  to  knead  it,  to  te§t  it  in  various  ways. 
But  he  is  likewise  to  employ  the  tool  the  moment 
he  is  ready  for  it.  And  that  moment  has  arrived 
when  he  can  make  his  work  more  perfect  by 
means  of  it,  or  can  save  time  and  labor.  To  be 
sure,  a  perfect  work  is  not  to  be  asked  of  the 
little  child,  his  outlines  are  expected  to  be  rude 
and  his  handling  crude.  Still  it  must  be  de- 
manded always  that  he  strive  toward  perfection, 
and  use  every  instrument  for  attaining  it.  Bad 
pedagogy  assuredly  is  that  which  throws  the 
child  back  upon  his  hand,  his  finger-nails,  when 
he  can  do  better  with  a  tool.  Such  training  runs 
counter  to  civilization  itself,  for  it  makes  him 
spend  his  time  at  an  economic  disadvantage. 
We  hold  it  to  be  a  wrong  to  the  child  thus  to 
fling  him  to  the  rear  in  the  great  race  of  life, 
whose  success  in  these  industrial  days  depends 
largely  upon  seizing  the  tool,  the  right  tool  at 
the  right  moment.  It  is  often  said  by  way  of 
defense  that  he  is  kept  back  in  order  to  acquire 
greater  skill  of  the  hand,  but  the  greatest  possi- 
ble skill  of  the  hand  lies  in  the  right  use  of 
tools.  There  is  no  purpose  of  making  the  child 
an  artist  in  Modeling,  but  there  is  the  purpose  of 


330  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

training  him  into  a  more  perfect  manhood,  whose 
end  is  perfection  itself.  To  lay  down  the  proposi- 
tion, "  No  tool  in  Modeling,"  is  to  the  last  degree 
narrowing,  confining,  destructive  of  the  true  aim 
of  this  Occupation ;  no  supposed  ultimate  result  in 
acquiring  manual  dexterity  can  possibly  justify 
such  a  procedure.  The  supreme  end  is  to  make 
as  perfect  as  possible  what  you  make,  any  other 
end  militating  with  that  cannot  be  allowed. 

The  fact  is,  the  child  has  to  have  a  tool  of 
some  kind  even  in  his  most  elementary  work  in 
Modeling.  He  cannot  well  cut  the  clay  with  his 
hand  (often  necessary  is  this  careful  cutting  of 
it)  ;  he  must  have  a  thread  if  a  sharp  instrument 
is  forbidden.  "  But  he  is  not  to  use  for  dividing 
.it  a  modeling  knife."  Such  a  rule  is  a  getting 
back  to  nature  with  a  vengeance  —  with  a  ven- 
geance wreaked  upon  the  child.  Is  the  little  one 
to  be  permitted  to  eat  with  knife  and  fork  at 
home?  to  use  a  comb  for  its  hair?  And  yet 
this  senseless  regulation  has  apparently  become 
the  first  principle  of  some  educators,  having  been 
issued  from  the  headquarters  of  a  city  school 
system. 

Already  we  have  sought  to  impress  the  fact 
upon  the  reader  that  the  child  is  going  to  the 
heart  of  his  time,  is  training  to  participate  in  the 
civilization  of  his  epoch,  by  using  the  tool.  Not 
only  a  tool-user,  but  a  tool-thinker,  and  so  a  tool- 
inventor  he  is  getting  to  be,  which  is  the  spirit 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.—  MODELING.       331 

underlying  all  machinery,  whose  end  is  the  en- 
franchisement of  man. 

Psychology  of  Modeling.  The  great  psychical 
fact  in  Modeling  is  that  what  the  child  has  taken 
up  into  himself  as  a  percept,  he  must  now  throw 
out  of  himself,  separate  from  himself,  and  make 
into  a  new  object.  So  Modeling  becomes  the 
most  complete  re-inforcement  of  vision,  of  sense- 
perception  ;  it  is  the  real  complement  and  outer 
fulfillment  of  sensuous  intuition,  which,  being  an 
activity  of  the  Intellect,  finds  its  counterpart  in 
this  formative  activity  of  the  Will.  The  percept 
is  the  object  taken  up  and  internalized  by  the 
Ego,  and  then  ideally  projected  again  into  the 
world,  by  an  inner  creative  act.  But  the  modeler 
of  the  object  makes  this  inner  percept  itself  into 
an  outer  shape,  creating  it  not  only  ideally  but 
also  really,  and  projecting  it  into  the  world  as  a 
new  object. 

This  is  an  act  of  Will,  of  distinctively  creative 
power,  by  which  the  child  remakes  outwardly 
that  which  he  has  perceived  internally.  He  is 
not  satisfied  simply  to  receive  by  sense-perception 
the  made  world  outside  of  himself,  he  must  make 
it  over  and  thus  assert  himself  as  a  world-creator, 
or  as  a  free  being  who  can  reproduce  his  presup- 
positions, even  his  sensuous  environment.  Un- 
doubtedly Modeling  sharpens  and  intensifies  the 
perceptive  faculty,  as  the  books  say;  but  this  is 
not  its  best  discipline. 


332  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Modeling  satisfies  the  deepest  longing  of  the 
child  because  through  it  he  shows  his  validity 
positively,  and  not  negatively.  He  can  destroy 
things,  and  thus  manifest  his  Will;  still  he  feels 
it  to  be  a  better  work  when  he  creates.  He  can 
make  himself  valid  in  the  world  by  destruction ; 
but  then  he  is  a  devil.  He  knows  himself  divine 
when  he  produces;  otherwise,  as  destroyer,  he 
is  ultimately  destroying  himself,  which  is  not 
happy-making.  Modeling  is  happy-making,  be- 
cause it  is  a  positive  Occupation,  eternally  self- 
building  as  well  as  world-building.  All  kinder- 
gardners  know  the  stress  which  Froebel  puts 
upon  keeping  the  child  positive  in  his  play ;  if  he 
unmakes  anything,  he  must  be  led  to  unmake  his 
unmaking,  or  to  negate  his  negative  act  and 
return  to  the  positive. 

We  may  now  say  a  few  words  concerning  the 
order  of  Modeling  in  the  kindergarden,  as  it  has 
given  rise  to  no  little  discussion.  This  order  ought 
to  be  psychological,  that  is,  in  harmony  with  the 
child's  own  mind,  his  Ego. 

I.  The  child  may  be  sent  to  the  sand-pile  or 
to  the  clay,  and  allowed  at  first  to  play  with  it, 
to  handle  it  and  to  form  it  at  his  own  sweet  will. 
Thus  he  is  getting  acquainted  with  his  future 
companion,  and  likewise  he  is  handed  over  for  a 
time  to  his  own  caprice,  or,  as  our  friends,  the 
Rousseauists,  designate  it,  he  is  given  his  free- 
dom. It  is  well  to  let  him  have  a  little  experience 


FROEBEU8  PLAT  GIFTS.— MODELING       333 

of  his  own  inexperienced  self,  which  is  empty  or 
nearly  so,  lacking  apperceptive  material  for  this 
sphere.  He  will  soon  get  tired,  having  almost 
no  content  in  his  mind  with  which  to  work,  and 
not  being  able  to  form  what  he  has.  At  this 
point  or  perchance  sooner,  the  kindergardner  is 
to  step  in  with  her  prescribed  order,  which  is 
the  second  stage  of  the  process. 

II.  The  child  is  now  to  model  what  has  been 
given  hitherto,  the  Gifts,  as  they  have  been  un- 
folded. Thus  he  begins  to  re-form  the  pre- 
formed, to  make  over  what  he  has  received  from 
the  outside.  The  reproductive  activity  of  the 
Occupations  is  now  the  distinctive  fact  in  the 
training  of  the  child,  who  is  to  return  upon  what 
he  has  done  previously,  and  to  reproduce  the 
shapes  with  which  he  played.  This  is  still  play, 
but  a  deeper  phase  of  it,  the  more  creative  phase. 

The  child  will  go  back  and  model  the  Ball,  the 
significance  of  which  act  has  been  already  set 
forth.  Then  he  will  pass  to  the  Building  Gifts 
and  mould  the  bricks  and  other  forms  for  his  con- 
struction. He  will  reproduce  the  various  curvi- 
linear shapes,  the  convex,  the  concave,  with  their 
combinations.  Thus  he  forms  the  material  which 
he  had  once  received  ready-made,  and  is  acquiring 
a  deeper  consciousness  of  his  creative  power  over 
the  external  world,  having  modeled  these  solid 
shapes  in  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude. 

So,  in  like  manner,  the  child  is  brought  to  re- 


334  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  Of 

new  and  re-establish  the  pre-established  in  the 
realm  of  spirit ;  what  he  has  done  with  the  na- 
tural world,  he  is  to  do  with  the  social  and  institu- 
tional world,  into  which  also  he  has  been  born, 
and  which  he  is  to  be  perpetually  making  over 
into  himself,  renewing  and  reconstructing  the 
same.  Family,  State,  Society,  Church  were  given 
him  at  birth,  but  he  has  to  recreate  them  all,  and 
thereby  possess  them  through  active  participa- 
tion. Thus  he  is  attaining  the  institutional  char- 
acter, basis  of  all  the  virtues. 

III.  In  this  third  stage,  which  may  be  called 
Free  Modeling,  the  child  is  again  to  be  handed 
over  to  himself,  and  is  allowed  to  model  what  he 
pleases.  He  must  not  only  be  permitted,  but 
encouraged  to  reproduce  any  object  which  strikes 
his  fancy.  He  is  now  presented  with  his  free- 
dom a  second  time ;  let  him  turn  to  nature  if  he 
will,  and  form  it  to  his  heart's  content. 

But  his  inner  condition  is  very  different  from 
that  of  the  first  stage,  when  he  was  thrown 
immediately  upon  his  own  resources,  of  which 
resources  he  had  almost  none.  He  now  has  a 
content,  an  apperceptive  material  upon  which  he 
can  draw;  he  has  been  given  a  little  world,  of 
which  he  has  been  the  modeler;  let  him  next 
try  to  model  the  great  world,  or  some  fragment  of 
it,  in  whatever  way  his  bent  drives  him. 

The  truth  is  that  previously  when  he  was  left 
simply  to  his  empty  caprice,  he  had  no  real  free- 


PltOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— MODELING.      335 

dom,  he  had  no  choice  between  order  and  dis- 
order, between  cosmos  and  chaos,  between  liberty 
and  license.  But  when  has  an  ordered  whole, 
such  as  that  given  him  by  the  previous  Gifts, 
and  its  opposite  to  choose  between,  he  has  before 
him  the  two  roads,  the  one  leading  to  regulated 
freedom  and  the  other  to  unbridled  caprice.  In 
the  one  case  he  is  becoming  the  law-maker,  in  the 
other  the  law-breaker.  When  turned  loose  into 
nature  at  the  start,  he  may  choose  between  a 
stick  and  a  stone  for  his  modeling,  but  that  is  no 
educative  choice,  which  must  go  far  deeper  and 
turn  upon  reproducing  the  order  environing  him, 
both  material  and  spiritual. 

Moreover,  we  may  add  here,  that  when  the 
child  or  the  grown  man  for  that  matter  is  left  to 
run  wild  in  nature,  he  is  not  free  in  the  sense 
that  he  has  gotten  rid  of  all  pre-established 
forms.  Nature  is  herself  the  pre-established, 
the  transmitted,  the  hereditary,  and  rules  with  an 
iron  necessity.  She  is  essentially  unfree  in  her 
government,  determining  her  subjects  from  the 
outside.  The  flight  from  society  to  nature  is  the 
underlying  theme  of  Rousseau,  who  held  it  to  be 
the  grand  liberation  of  man,  but  it  is  really  his 
enslavement.  Yet  the  child  in  his  education  is 
to  taste  and  to  taste  deeply  of  nature  in  order 
that  he  may  transform  her,  remodel  her  into  the 
abode  of  his  freedom. 

Such,  then,    is   the  psychological   process  of 


336  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Modeling,  which  the  kindergardner  is  to  embody 
in  her  training  of  the  children  under  her  charge. 
All  three  stages  belong  to  the  educative  unfold- 
ing of  the  child's  Ego ;  he  is  to  have  his  caprice 
at  first,  but  is  to  be  led  out  of  it  into  true  free- 
dom through  an  established  order,  which  in  the 
present  sphere  is  represented  by  the  Gifts 
so-called. 

The  great  objection.  The  secret  enemies  of 
Modeling,  strange  to  say,  are  found  chiefly 
among  the  kindergardners  themselves.  As  the 
material  is  clay,  this  Occupation  is  set  down  as 
dirty  work,  and  not  fit  for  a  lady.  But  many  or 
indeed  the  most  employments  in  this  world  are 
not  exactly  clean.  The  house  has  a  mysterious 
tendency  to  make  hidden  collections  of  dust- 
particles  which  have  usually  to  be  spied  out  by 
the  female  eye.  To  get  rid  of  dirt  is  naturally  a 
dirty  task.  I  notice  that  Bridget  in  sweeping  the 
carpet  raises  a  horrid  cloud  which  drives  me  out 
of  the  house.  Yet  the  thing  has  to  be  done,  I 
suppose.  So  these  kindergarden  children  must 
not  be  afraid  of  Mother  Earth  clinging  to  their 
clothes  affectionately,  or  even  kissing  them  at 
times  smack  in  the  face  and  leaving  there  a  mark 
of  her  attachment.  A  little  too  much  daintiness, 
offishness,  squeaniishness  with  twisted  nose  and 
contorted  features  one  may  see  in  some  kinder- 
gardners while  manipulating  the  "  dirty  stuff." 

Undoubtedly  we   must  have  cleanliness,  tidy 


FBOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— MODELING.      337 

habits,  good  manners  in  these  children.  What 
is  to  be  done?  Turn  them  loose  upon  the  sand 
pile,  give  them  the  clay  lumps,  but  put  them 
into  some  kind  of  a  protecting  garment  for  the 
occasion.  And  let  the  kindergardner  herself 
lead  the  way  by  her  example ;  let  her  deck  her- 
self in  a  neat  apron,  and  then  take  hold  with  full 
hand  and  heart,  not  with  hesitating  finger-tips  of 
dainty  disgust.  Thus  is  engendered  a  sympathy 
with  toil  and  the  toiler,  with  the  laboring  millions 
in  the  shops  who  are  doing  the  work  of  the 
world  in  sweat  and  smoke  and  soot.  Perchance 
this  may  be  considered  an  advantage  of  the  pres- 
ent Occupation  over  all  the  Gifts  and  other  Occu- 
pations :  it  is  a  little  dirty.  So  the  child  may 
take  a  lesson  in  keeping  himself  clean  under  ad- 
verse circumstances.  What  memories  I  have  of 
that  kindergardner  whom  once  I  saw  in  her  white 
drapery  modeling  the  plastic  clay !  To  me  her 
appearance  was  that  of  a  Greek  Goddess ;  she 
would  have  been  a  good  model  herself  for  the 
sculptor  just  in  her  modeling. 

Not  too  fastidious,  then,  must  we  be  in  work, 
lest  we  get  afflicted  with  a  sentimental  nausea  at 
the  sight  of  toiling  humanity.  The  legend  says 
that  man  was  made  of  clay,  and  why  should  he 
not  sometimes  betray  his  heredity?  One  thing  is 
certain :  thou  shalt  return  to  dust.  Whimsical 
Johnny  Appleseed  has  touched  upon  this  sub- 
22 


888  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

ject  in  one  of  his  shrill  quatrains,  which  may 
be  here  cited : 

Be  not  more  dainty  than  thy  race, 

For  thou  canst  not  dismiss  it; 
Thy  Mother  Earth  has  a  dirty  face 

And  thou  shalt  have  to  kiss  it. 


II. 

THE    INDUSTRIAL    OCCUPATIONS. 

The  stage  of  multiplicity  is  indicated  by  the 
plural  in  the  title  just  given.  Most  of  the  Occu- 
pations of  the  kindergarden  are  found  under  the 
present  head,  as  we  shall  more  fully  see  later  on. 

The  principle  of  Eeproduction  continues,  but 
now  it  passes  to  Abstract  Magnitudes,  which  are 
to  show  their  creative  and  transforming  power  in 
the  material  world.  The  training  to  productivity 
which  is  so  emphatically  begun  in  the  quantitative 
Gifts,  is  here  realized  more  adequately  than 
before,  inasmuch  as  point,  line,  and  surface 
become  the  moulds,  so  to  speak,  for  shaping  all 
matter. 

Moreover  an  economic,  social  or  sociological 
element  enters  with  distinctness.  To  a  certain 

(339) 


340  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

extent  the  child  is  to  reproduce  the  industrial 
world  in  which  he  lives ;  he  must  take  up  into 
himself  the  principle  of  all  industries,  and  he 
must  make  over  within  himself  the  movement  of 
economic  civilization.  He  is  to  re-enact  the 
origin  of  society,  creating  it  in  miniature  through 
these  Occupations,  and  at  the  same  time  creating 
himself  as  a  member  of  society.  Thus  the 
kindergarden  becomes  a  little  society  making 
society,  and  these  Occupations  give  the  child  a 
training  in  social  genesis,  bringing  him  to  pro- 
duce social  relations  and  to  put  himself  naturally 
into  those  relations. 

The  fundamental  fact,  then,  of  the  present 
section  of  the  Occupations  is  the  reproduction  of 
Abstract  Magnitudes  —  point,  line,  surface  —  in 
material  objects.  In  Modeling,  we  recollect, 
there  was  the  immediate  reproduction  of  the 
sensuous  object ;  point,  line,  and  surface,  though 
present,  were  implicit ;  they  were  not  consciously 
or  distinctively  brought  out  in  the  work.  But 
now  they  become  explicit,  and  appear  in  their 
own  right,  as  it  were;  they  mediate  the  form, 
and  have  their  own  separate  place  in  thought  and 
often  in  visible  shape. 

What  name  can  we  find  to  designate  the  present 
sphere?  We  have  used  the  term  industrial,  as 
the  Occupations  herein  embraced  are  mostly 
little  miniature  copies  of  the  great  industries  of 
the  world.  They  are  also  reproductive  in  the 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.    341 

sense  already  given,  they  reproduce  the  Gifts  of 
Abstract  Magnitude  as  Modeling  has  reproduced 
the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude.  So  we  see  a 
parallelism  in  movement  between  the  Gifts  and 
the  Occupations,  though  each  kind  has  its  own 
meaning  and  its  own  place  in  the  total  process 
of  the  system  of  Play-gifts. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  present  section  of  the 
Occupations  is  based  upon  separation  through- 
out—  the  separation  of  what  from  what?  The 
Abstract  Magnitudes  of  geometry  (or  of  space) 
are  separated  from  their  concrete  shapes  and  em- 
ployed to  reproduce  new  objects.  Hence  this  is 
the  grand  realm  of  the  formation  and  transfor- 
mation of  matter,  which  is  the  character  of  the 
industrial  realm  of  human  activity.  The  Ego,  in 
getting  hold  of  and  using  these  Abstract  Magni- 
tudes —  point,  line,  surface  —  stands  possessed 
of  the  ideal  creative  principle  which  dominates 
all  form,  and  employs  the  same  for  its  own  repro- 
ductive purposes.  The  point,  line,  and  surface 
belong  to  the  material  shape  really,  control- 
ling it,  limiting  it ;  they  also  belong  to  the  Ego 
ideally,  which,  therefore,  controls  them  and  uses 
them  as  its  own.  So  this  Ego,  this  mind,  has 
now  the  fundamental  ideal  implement,  the  tool  of 
all  tools,  for  the  mastering  of  the  external  world 
of  matter. 

In  general,  this  industrial  stage  belongs  to  the 
second  stage  of  the  Psychosis,  which  moves 


342  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

through,  unites  and  orders  all  the  Occupations, 
being  the  stage  of  separation,  abstraction,  divis- 
ion. We  shall  find  by  far  the  greatest  number 
of  separate  Occupations  under  the  present  head, 
representing  many  diverse  industries. 

Yet  the  student  must  carefully  bring  to  mind 
that  in  the  broader  sense,  in  the  total  sweep  of 
the  Gifts  and  Occupations  this  is  the  third  stage, 
which  we  have  in  a  general  way  designated  as 
the  reproductive.  For  now  the  abstract  is  re- 
produced and  formed  in  the  material,  but  this 
abstract  element  is  itself  a  separation  from  the 
concrete.  Thus  the  student  will  behold  in  every 
division  of  the  Ego's  process  its  total  process 
at  the  same  time  —  which  is  the  foundation  of 
all  psychical  knowledge  worthy  of  the  name. 
In  this  way  alone  can  he  be  saved  from  the 
existing  psychological  Scylla  and  Charybdis : 
namely,  from  the  crushing  formalism  and  soul- 
destroying  dilaceration  of  the  old  faculty-psy- 
chology, and  on  the  other  hand  from  the  oppo- 
site absurdity,  which  seeks  to  do  away  with  the 
faculties  and  denies  in  substance  the  separative 
power  of  the  Ego.  This  must  be  seen  in  its 
eternal  process,  which  divides  the  one  and  yet  is 
one  in  all  division. 

We  find  a  dominant  note  of  the  present 
sphere  to  be  utility.  Man  takes  the  forms  of  na- 
ture, and  makes  them  over  into  his  own  forms 
through  point,  line,  surface,  in  order  that  they 


FEOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.    343 

may  subserve  his  end,  which  lies  outside  of  them 
in  something  else.  Hence  they  are  essentially 
a  means,  and  we  note  here  another  phase  of  sepa- 
ration, that  into  means  and  end.  Hence  these 
are  specially  the  useful  or  economical  Occupa- 
tions ;  even  when  decorative,  they  produce  what 
decorates  something  else,  the  product  is  not  self- 
end  but  a  means,  not  so  much  artistic  as  utili- 
tarian. 

We  must  observe,  however,  that  for  the  child 
the  present  Occupations  are  purely  educative. 
They  are  to  unfold  his  mind,  not  to  give  him  a 
trade.  To  be  sure,  they  may  and  will  help  him 
find  his  bent,  his  special  talent,  which  may  lead 
to  a  vocation ;  but  their  true  use  is  to  help  make 
him  a  man  first  of  all,  to  unfold  him  into  a  well- 
rounded  human  being,  who  is  capable  of  many  if 
not  of  all  directions.  In  these  days  of  machinery 
one  trade  is  no  certain  dependence  for  the  individ- 
ual, who  in  such  narrowness  is  liable  to  become 
tragic;  he  may  have  his  means  of  sustenance 
taken  away  from  him  in  a  day  by  a  new  inven- 
tion, which  saves  labor  but  destroys  the  man. 
So  the  child  is  by  education  to  become  the  pos- 
sibility of  all  trades,  not  the  slave  of  one;  there- 
by he  meets  the  social  problem  of  the  time  with 
a  fair  hope  of  victory.  He  is  trained  in  these 
Occupations  to  a  manifold  industrial  activity,  in 
fact  to  the  universal  mastery  of  nature,  whose 
forms  he  learns  to  reproduce  and  control  for  his 


344  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

own  behoof,  through  his  intimacy  with  her 
creative  sources. 

In  the  present  section  we  enter  upon  that 
portion  of  Froebel's  system  of  Play-gifts  in  which 
there  is  the  greatest  room  for  difference,  variety, 
multiplicity  of  all  sorts.  There  is  before  us  the 
vast  field  of  human  industry  from  which  we  may 
draw.  So  difference  of  opinion  has  here  an 
enormous  opportunity  for  exploiting  itself.  Some 
kindergardners  will  allow  but  few  Occupations, 
some  will  run  them  up  to  thirty  or  more.  Still, 
though  the  boundary  lines  of  inclusion  and  ex- 
clusion be  shifting  and  misty,  we  shall  find  a 
pretty  general  consensus  of  judgment  concerning 
what  are  the  most  important  Occupations.  Thus 
there  is  a  solid  core  of  opinion  round  which  the 
more  volatile  penumbra  of  individual  preference 
and  caprice  hovers  and  shifts  and  struggles. 

We  shall  now  attempt  to  put  into  psychological 
order  the  main  Occupations  which  the  kinder- 
garden  organism  has  adopted.  Three  masses  or 
divisions  can  be  seen,  which  form  the  stages  of 
the  process  of  the  present  sphere.  Let  the  reader 
be  reminded  once  more  that  the  characteristic  of 
this  sphere  is  the  reproduction  of  Abstract  Mag- 
nitudes. In  the  following  outline,  therefore,  he 
is  to  observe  the  movement  of  this  reproduction 
in  its  various  phases. 

A.  Reproduction  of  Abstract  Magnitudes  in 
material  immediately,  for  example  through  Mod- 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.    345 

eling.  The  point,  line,  and  surface  are  repro- 
duced, are  copied  as  it  were,  or  re-embodied  in 
clay,  or,  it  may  be,  in  other  material.  The 
models  here  are  the  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude 
already  set  forth  in  the  previous  chapter. 

B.  Reproduction    of   Abstract  Magnitudes    in 
material,  not  by  copying  them   but  by  making 
them  change   or  transform   the   object.     Point, 
line,  and  surface  are  now  reproduced,  not  pas- 
sively in  the  pliable  clay,  but  actively  changing 
the  material.     A  line,  modeled   in  wax  and  laid 
out  on  a   surface,  is  simply  passive;  but  when 
the  same  line  holds  the  parts  of  the  surface  to- 
gether, it  is  active  and  enters  into  the  character 
of  the   object.     A  thread  may  represent  a  line 
taken  by  itself ;  but  the  same  thread  sewed  into 
a  fabric  may  change  it  into  a  garment.     Thus 
point,  line,  and  surface  are  not  merely  formable, 
they  are  forming  and  transforming;  that  is,  they 
are  twofold,  they  are  an  end  as  in  the  first  stage, 
yet  also  a  means. 

Here,  then,  enters  the  realm  of  difference,  into 
which  we  pass  in  the  reproduction  of  Abstract 
Magnitudes.  Point,  line,  surface  —  each  is  sep- 
arately a  shape  yet  makes  a  shape. 

C.  Reproduction  of   all  the  Abstract  Magni- 
tudes—  point,    line,    surface — as    distinct   and 
separate,  yet  united  into  one  shape.     This  is  seen 
in  the  so-called  peas- work,  in  which  the  separa- 
tion of  the  present  sphere  is  made  complete  and 


846  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

visible  in  its  three  elements  —  point,  line  and 
surface  —  yet  all  three  are  joined  together  in  one 
shape.  This  figure,  therefore,  is  the  whole 
embodiment  and  conclusion  of  the  industrial 
Occupations,  whose  function  is  to  reproduce 
Abstract  Magnitudes,  since  they  are  all  now  re- 
produced and  held  in  unity  by  this  one  form,  and 
the  end  is  just  this  reproduction. 

Such  is  the  inner  psychical  movement  which 
we  find  in  this  industrial  sphere  of  reproduction, 
essentially  that  of  Abstract  Magnitudes.  In  it 
we  note  the  three  stages  of  the  Psychosis.  The 
first  we  shall  call  The.  Plastic  Industrial  Occupa- 
tion, in  which  you  employ  the  material  to  make 
point,  line,  and  surface.  The  second  we  shall 
call  The  Useful  Industrial  Occupations,  in  which 
you  use  point,  line,  and  surface  to  transform  the 
material.  The  third  we  shall  call  The  Graphic 
Industrial  Occupation,  in  which  you  use  point, 
line,  and  surface,  to  make  point,  line,  and  sur- 
face; that  is,  to  embody  them  in  a  material 
form  whose  end  is  to  show  them  as  point,  line, 
surface. 

The  last  stage  evidently  completes  the  cycle 
of  the  Industrial  Occupations,  since  it  shows  the 
return  of  the  whole  series  of  Abstract  Magni- 
tudes, in  its  reproductive  movement,  back  into 
itself.  The  point,  line,  and  surface  as  active 
(second  stage)  have  reproduced  the  point,  line, 
and  surface  as  passive  (first  stage),  both  of 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTBIAL.    347 

which  are  united  in  the  production  of  Peas-work 
(third  stage). 

Of  course  these  statements  are  very  general, 
and  cannot  be  fully  understood  without  the  de- 
tailed exposition,  to  which  they  are  merely  a  sign- 
board pointing  out  the  way,  This  exposition  we 
are  now  to  give  in  the  proposed  order. 

A.  THE  PLASTIC  INDUSTRIAL  OCCUPATION.  In 
this  name  we  seek  to  designate  the  three  lead- 
ing facts  of  the  subject.  First,  it  is  an  Occupa- 
tion, and  hence  reproductive;  secondly,  it  is 
industrial,  reproducing  Abstract  Magnitudes  — 
point,  line,  surface;  thirdly,  it  is  plastic,  repro- 
ducing them  immediately,  through  Modeling,  in 
solid  material. 

The  present  Occupation  is  different  from  the 
preceding  (the  Plastic  Occupation),  inasmuch  as 
it  reproduces,  not  the  Gifts  of  Concrete  Magni- 
tude, but  those  of  Abstract  Magnitude,  and 
hence  belongs  to  the  second  stage  in  the  complete 
Psychosis  of  the  Occupations.  Point,  line,  and 
surface  are  actually  materialized  by  the  child  and 
that  is  here  the  object. 

We  should  not,  however,  forget  to  state  that, 
while  the  material  in  one  sense  determines  the 
point,  line,  and  surface,  in  another  and  deeper 
sense  they  determine  the  material,  giving  to  it 
their  own  forms.  They,  so  to  speak,  passively 
receive  the  material  into  their  molds,  and  stop 


348  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

with  that ;  but  in  the  next  Occupation  they  will 
become  active,  even  in  their  embodied  shapes, 
and  transform  other  material  beside  their  own. 
Yet  even  in  our  present  Occupation,  point,  line, 
and  surface  are  not  absolutely  passive. 

Accordingly,  we  are  to  consider  the  immediate 
reproduction  of  Abstract  Magnitudes  —  point, 
line,  surface  —  in  material  by  means  of  Modeling. 
They  are  to  be  formed  now  in  clay  or  in  some 
other  f  ormable  substance ;  the  child  is  to  re- 
create them,  and  then  to  employ  them  for  his 
combinations.  Previously  in  the  Gifts  these 
Abstract  Magnitudes,  in  the  shape  of  tablets, 
sticks,  seeds,  were  given  him  already  formed; 
but  he  is  now  to  form  them  for  himself  and  so 
make  in  this  respect  his  own  material. 

In  the  Gifts  the  point,  line,  and  surface,  being 
ideal,  were  re-embodied  for  the  child  who  could 
not  yet  grasp  them  in  their  abstraction  from  the 
concrete  object.  Still  in  playing  with  them  as 
given  things,  he  was  getting  their  meaning.  But 
here  in  the  Occupations  he  is  to  take  the  next 
great  step  forward,  he  is  to  form  his  Abstract 
Magnitudes  himself,  not  simply  receive  them 
already  formed ;  thus  he  is  doing  with  his  hand 
what  he  is  soon  to  conceive  with  his  mind.  He  is 
projecting  outwardly,  what  he  in  due  season  must 
project  inwardly;  then  he  has  reached  the  ab- 
straction or  the  ideal  which  is  the  creative  typo 
of  all  surfaces,  lines,  points. 


FEOEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.—  INDUSTRIAL.    349 

The  complete  logical  opposite  of  the  solid  or 
Concrete  Magnitude  would  be  the  point,  which 
has  not  length  ^breadth  or  thickness,  is  the  total 
negation  of  the  three  dimensions,  which  belong 
to  the  reality.  Hence  the  point  is  a  thought,  is 
ideal,  is  the  absolute  difference  from  the  solid. 
In  the  present  stage  of  Abstract  Magnitude  this 
difference  is  what  is  introduced,  so  that  we  might 
now  expect  the  direct  transition  to  the  point  as 
our  beginning. 

While  this  is  true  in  thought,  we  must  at  the 
same  time  not  leave  out  the  movement  to  the 
point  from  the  solid.  Such  is  the  immediate 
stage  of  the  process  before  us ;  we  must  first  pro- 
ceed from  the  Concrete  Magnitude  of  the  pre- 
vious stage  to  the  Abstract  Magnitude  of  the 
present  one,  starting  with  the  surface  which  is 
nearest  to  the  solid,  and  moving  through  the  line 
to  the  point. 

Moreover,  Modeling  is  the  means  which  con- 
nects this  directly  with  the  preceding  stage,  in 
which  the  solids  were  modeled.  The  shapes  are 
indeed  patterned  after  the  Gifts  of  Abstract 
Magnitude,  and  manifest  the  same  order  which 
was  shown  there.  This  order  we  shall  keep, 
preserving  in  it  the  idea  of  derivation  from  the 
preceding  Gifts.  That  derivation,  we  recollect, 
should  have  directness,  completeness,  and  sym- 
metry. (See  these  terms  illustrated  under  the 
head  of  Tablets.) 


850  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Accordingly  the  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magni- 
tude—  surface,  line,  point  —  should  be  modeled 
in  the  Occupations.  Otherwise  the  movement  of 
reproduction  is  not  complete  nor  symmetrical. 
Something  is  left  out,  and  the  result  is  a  break 
in  the  genetic  sequence.  As  a  rule  kindergard- 
ners  do  not  have  their  children  model  point,  line, 
surface ;  they  have  not  hitherto  distinctly  seen 
that  this  was  a  necessary  step  in  the  development 
of  the  Occupations.  Still  they  report  that  the 
children  of  themselves  will  make  out  of  clay 
point,  line,  surface,  through  an  instinctive  bent 
to  produce  what  has  previously  been  given.  The 
child  who  has  received  in  the  Gifts  the  ready- 
made  shapes  of  the  Abstract  Magnitudes,  cannot 
help  reproducing  them  when  he  gets  his  hand 
upon  some  pliable  material.  And  he  is  right;  he 
is  educating  himself,  and  if  we  listen  to  the  silent 
voice  of  his  deed,  we  shall  be  able  to  supply  a 
missing  link  in  the  kindergarden  succession  of 
Occupations.  So  we  shall  be  justified  in  unfold- 
ing the  surface,  line,  and  point  at  the  present 
stage. 

1.  The  child  is  to  form  in  his  material  the 
surface,  which  corresponds  to  the  tablets,  curvi- 
lineal  and  rectilineal.  The  clay  cube  may  be 
taken  and  its  side  or  sides  cut  off  with  a  string 
or  knife.  The  process  of  abstraction  thus 
becomes  visible,  and  is  performed  outwardly  by 
the  child.  The  triangle  can  be  made  by  divid- 


FEOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.    351 

ing  the  brick.  But  here  again  conies  the  diffi- 
culty which  was  noticed  in  discussing  the  trian- 
gular tablets:  some  of  them  are  not  directly 
derivable  from  the  preceding  forms.  In  Model- 
ing the  derivation  becomes  specially  important, 
for  the  shapes  have  to  be  formed  by  a  principle 
genetically.  The  argument  for  the  easily  deriv- 
able tablets  is  strongly  reinforced  at  this  point. 
Also  the  shortening  of  the  right-angled  scalene 
triangle  is  doubtful  from  the  standpoint  of 
Modeling,  for  it  cannot  be  derived  but  only 
copied  from  the  made  Gifts.  It  is  evident  that 
the  inner  genetic  thread  which  runs  through  and 
hold  together  the  whole  series  of  Gifts  and  Occu- 
pations gets  lost,  and  the  child  has  to  drop  down 
to  mere  external  imitation  in  his  Modeling. 
Thus  it  loses  the  best  part  of  its  training  value, 
which  is  to  make  him  internally  unify  all  that  he 
externally  shapes. 

2.  Following  the  order  of  the  Gifts,  as  well  as 
the  movement  from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract, 
the  child  is  next  to  model  the  line,  represented 
previously  by  given  sticks  and  rings.  Let  him 
now  shape  or  cut  his  material  and  construct  his 
figures  out  of  what  he  has  formed.  Thus  he  is 
combining  not  only  the  pre-formed,  but  also  the 
re-formed;  his  products  may  not  be  quite  so 
perfect  as  what  others  have  made  for  him,  still 
they  are  his  own  and  reveal  him  to  himself  as 
creative.  In  this  way  he  is  making  his  own 


352  THE  PS YCHOL OGY  OF 

world,  and  taking  his  child-strides  toward  the 
goal  of  freedom. 

3.  At  last  he  will  model  the  point  out  of  clay, 
or  transform  som»e  solid  into  points  by  division. 
This  is  the  extreme  of  separation,  which  he  is  to 
see  in  its  complete  abstraction.  He  will  feel  the 
concentration  involved  in  its  making  and  get  the 
inner  discipline.  Then  he  will  pass  to  combining 
the  points  till  they  suggest  lines  or  surfaces. 
Thus  he  does  with  the  made  points  what  he  once 
did  with  the  given  points. 

In  this  way  the  child  easily  repeats  in  the 
Occupations  what  he  has  learned  in  the  Gifts, 
yet  with  a  new  thought,  that  of  reproducing  his 
material.  The  kindergardner  should  not  fail  to 
go  through  (very  rapidly  it  may  be)  the  Gifts  of 
Abstract  Magnitude  with  material  shaped  by 
the  child  in  order  to  deepen  the  creative  lesson. 
He  will  take  the  lesson  in  his  way,  connecting  his 
present  activity  with  his  previous  one,  and  feel- 
ing in  his  work  the  ever-present  hint  of  repro- 
duction. All  kinds  of  surfaces  and  lines  — 
straight,  curved,  concentric  —  he  can  model  or 
shape  or  cut  in  some  way ;  thus  he  is  learning  to 
reconstruct  his  environment  in  accord  with  his 
own  ideals,  for  even  point,  line,  and  surface  are 
ideals  which  he  is  now  realizing. 

We  have  here  reached  the  point  which  has  been 
reproduced  in  material  form  by  Modeling.  But 
what  about  this  point?  It  is  in  thought  the  com- 


FKOEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.    353 

plete  abstraction,  the  abstraction  from  length, 
breadth  and  thickness.  Still  the  point  is  not  the 
same  as  simple  nothing;  it  is,  and  is  active,  else 
it  would  not  be  a  point.  It  must  still  be  abstrac- 
tion; but  from  what  can  it  now  abstract?  Only 
from  itself.  Thus  the  point  is  self -negative, 
self -repellent,  self -projecting,  and  so  projects 
itself  into  a  line.  The  point  is,  therefore,  in  its 
last  character,  the  turning-point,  and  moves  out 
of  itself  into  a  line.  The  clay  point,  divided 
within  itself,  and  made  two  points,  suggests  the 
line.  The  point,  when  reached,  can  go  no  fur- 
ther in  its  negative  progress,  but  turns  on  itself, 
overcomes  itself  and  goes  in  the  other  direction. 
Or  we  may  say  abstrusely,  the  point  is  the  nega- 
tion of  negation,  and  so  becomes  positive. 

Thus  the  point  embodied  moves  out  of  itself, 
suggesting  and  also  embodying  the  line.  The 
point  thereby  becomes  the  transforming  principle 
of  matter,  its  creative  energy  will  realize  itself 
in  line,  outline,  surface,  solid.  From  this  inner 
power  of  the  point  the  material  world  is  trans- 
formed. Here  again  we  have  to  grasp  the  point 
as  turning-point,  or  as  transition-point,  making 
the  transition  from  its  more  passive  and  receptive 
condition  in  the  modeling  of  Abstract  Magnitudes 
to  its  active,  generative,  transforming  character 
in  the  following  stage.  We  have  already  noticed, 
however,  that  even  in  the  preceding  plastic  stage 
the  point,  line  and  surface  determine  the  form  of 

23 


354  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

the  material  like  a  mould,  and  so  are  not  wholly 
passive.  But  now  the  surface,  line  and  specially 
the  point  being  moulded  in  material  go  forth  and 
mould  material  in  their  turn ;  they  become  imple- 
ments themselves  and  call  for  implements.  This 
brings  us  to  the  next  stage. 

B.  THE  USEFUL  INDUSTRIAL  OCCUPATIONS. 
Here  we  enter  distinctly  the  realm  of  utility ;  the 
Abstract  Magnitudes  have  become  a  means,  or 
an  implement  which  is  useful,  whose  end  lies 
outside  of  itself.  Thus  the  economic  world 
dawns  on  us,  especially  in  its  educative  import 
for  the  child,  who  is  to  recreate  it  in  and  for 
himself. 

Accordingly  we  are  to  consider  the  second 
stage  of  the  reproduction  of  Abstract  Magnitudes 
in  matter.  Point,  line  and  surface  are  still  repro- 
duced, but  not  for  their  own  sake  as  in  Modeling ; 
they  are  employed  in  changing  the  object  for 
another  end  than  the  mere  reproduction  of  them- 
selves. The  threads  of  a  carpet  may  be  consid- 
ered embodied  lines  made  into  a  surface ;  but  the 
lines  and  the  surface  are  not  there  for  their  own 
sake,  they  serve  a  purpose  beyond  themselves, 
namely  man's  need. 

Here  the  industrial  principle  begins  to  show 
itself.  The  material  universe  is  to  be  trans- 
formed by  means  of  point,  line,  surface,  into 
objects  which  in  some  way  are  useful  to  man. 


FROEBEUS  PLA  V  GIFTS.  —  IND USTBIAL.    355 

In  Modeling  the  immediate  end  was  to  model  a 
surface,  line,  point,  in  their  own  right,  though 
they  too  had  an  ultimate  end,  namely  the  educa- 
tive one  for  the  child.  But  in  the  present  stage 
the  Abstract  Magnitudes  are  made  into  a  means 
for  producing  something  which  has  utility ;  yet 
all  of  this  is  likewise  educative  for  the  child. 

The  movement  will  henceforth  be  different; 
it  will  be  from  the  point  toward  the  surface  and 
the  solid,  though  it  will  never  quite  reach  the 
latter.  The  point  now  turns  on  itself,  is  by  its 
own  inherent  nature  the  turning  point,  negating 
itself  as  simple  point  (which  would  be  nothing  at 
all).  The  point,  to  be  point,  must  be  axial  and 
overcome  itself  into  a  line ;  it  is  not  merely  passive 
but  genetic,  self -generating,  self -unfolding. 

The  point,  having  this  creative  energy  within 
itself,  will  show  its  power  over  all  matter,  making 
the  same  into  lines,  surfaces,  and  thereby  trans- 
forming the  solid  into  new  shapes.  For  the 
point  can  now  generate  any  line  and  embody  the 
same  in  whatever  material  it  selects ;  it  is  verily 
the  Ego  in  its  externally  creative  energy  making 
over  the  outer  world. 

Why  put  the  useful  industrial  Occupations  in 
the  second  or  separative  stage  of  the  present 
movement?  Because  of  the  already  mentioned 
division  into  means  and  end;  in  Modeling  the 
Abstract  Magnitudes  were  reproduced  for  them- 
selves, as  their  own  end ;  but  now  they  are  repro- 


356  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

duced  as  a  means  for  an  end  other  than  them- 
selves. Hence  this  is  sometimes  called  the  realm 
of  the  useful  Arts  in  contrast  to  the  fine  Arts. 
Such,  however,  is  the  division:  the  reproduction 
of  Abstract  Magnitudes  separates  within  itself, 
and  becomes  a  means  for  an  end,  in  other  words 
they  get  the  principle  of  utility. 

So  the  child  is  to  Have  the  discipline  which 
comes  from  the  industrial  Occupations,  not 
simply  for  the  sake  of  the  dexterity  acquired, 
though  this  is  not  to  be  despised,  but  for  the 
sake  of  the  education.  He  is  training  to  make 
himself  useful  by  making  useful  things.  He  too 
must  often  transform  himself  into  a  means  to  an 
end,  and  give  himself  up  to  the  small  duties  of 
life  as  well  to  the  grand  ultimate  purpose  of  exist- 
ence. As  an  ethical  being  he  has  to  surrender 
himself  to  an  institutional  end  which  lies  outside 
of  him,  and  exists  in  its  own  right;  yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  institutions  have  him  as  their  end, 
and  so  give  back  to  him  his  own  in  its  highest 
form,  namely,  his  freedom.  The  utilitarian  side 
of  education  has  its  meaning,  yes  its  ethical 
meaning,  though  it  be  not  at  all  the  whole  of 
education. 

The  child,  therefore,  transforms  his  material 
for  an  end  outside  of  the  object  so  transformed, 
yet  this  end  shows  itself  more  or  less  distinctly 
in  the  form.  We  must  see  that  in  such  an  act 
he  is  transforming  himself,  he  is  making  himself 


FKOEBEVS  PLAT  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.    357 

useful  in  making  useful  things.  An  important 
element  of  human  life  and  human  relationship, 
yet  not  all ;  it  is  to  have  its  due  place  in  the 
child's  education. 

Under  the  present  head  nearly  all  the  Occupa- 
tions of  the  kindergarden  are  arranged  in  the 
manuals,  varying  usually  from  ten  to  twenty. 
We  shall  try  to  put  the  leading  ones  into  an 
order  which  corresponds  with  the  inner  move- 
ment of  the  child's  mind. 

As  the  point  is  now  active,  we  have  to  indicate 
this  activity  in  the  statement.  In  the  first  place 
we  shall  have  to  consider  the  po.'nt  moving  into 
the  line  as  ideal.  We  have  reached  the  point  as 
self -repellent  or  self -projecting  into  a  line.  At 
the  same  time  it  embodies  itself  in  material 
shape.  The  point  breaks  into  space  and  shivers 
it  to  atoms,  or  indeed  less  than  atoms,  since  it  is 
the  negation  of  all  extension,  has  not  length, 
breadth  or  thickness.  Still  the  point  is  spatial, 
in  order  to  be  at  all,  and  so  must  extend  itself 
and  become  line.  By  itself  it  cannot  be  with- 
out being  simply  nothing,  a  blank.  So  the  point 
must  extend  itself,  project  itself. 

The  point  uttering  (outering)  itself  into  a 
line  can  be  straight  or  curved,  or  concentric. 

The  Occupations  which  show  or  suggest  the 
movement  from  point  to  line  are  Dotting,  Per- 
forating, Cutting,  to  which  others  are  sometimes 
added. 


358  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

In  the  second  place  the  line  moves  to  outline 
and  to  surface. 

All  of  the  preceding  lines  which  return  into 
one  another  suggest  the  surface,  for  instance,  a 
circular  row  of  dots  or  stitches.  But  Weaving, 
that  most  important  and  universal  handicraft, 
shows  the  line  as  material  moving  into  the  surface 
as  material ;  the  ideal  surface  is  transformed  into 
a  real  substantial  one  before  the  eye.  Here  too 
we  may  place  the  Interlocking  of  Slats,  the  Inter- 
twining of  Paper,  to  which  list  other  Occu- 
pations may  be  indefinitely  added.  The  most 
common  of  these  we  shall  try  hereafter  to  order 
psychically. 

We  are  still  employing  the  forms  of  Abstract 
Magnitudes,  material  and  non-material  (for 
instance  the  thread  and  the  cut  line)  for  the 
purpose  of  transforming  material  objects  and 
thus  making  them  useful.  Yet  the  final  end  in 
these  Occupations  for  the  child  is  educative,  he 
is  making  himself  useful  in  making  useful  things, 
he  is  training  himself  especially  as  a  member  of 
the  social  order.  It. is  no  objection  to  these 
Occupations  that  they  are  utilitarian ;  utility  has 
its  niche  in  this  world  of  ours,  and  utility  is  not 
to  be  thrown  out  of  the  education  of  the  child. 

In  the  third  place  we  reach  the  thought  of 
return  in  the  self -returning  surface.  That  is,  the 
surface  now  bends  around  and  returns  into  itself, 
as  did  the  point  in  order  to  produce  the  line,  and 


FKOEBEL'S  PLAT  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.     359 

the  line  in  order  to  produce  the  outline.  Thus 
the  primal  character  of  the  point  perpetuates 
itself,  or  the  total  material  surface  goes  back  and 
re-enacts  the  first  stage,  the  movement  from  point 
to  line  (and  outline). 

This  is  shown  in  the  Occupation  called  card- 
board modeling,  in  which  the  material  surface  is 
bent  back  into  itself  and  produces  a  space-con- 
taining or  hollow  object.  It  is  not  a  solid,  though 
sometimes  so  designated ;  it  would  not  belong  to 
the  present  sphere,  which  is  the  reproduction  of 
Abstract  Magnitudes,  if  it  were  a  solid.  Its 
very  nature  is  to  be  space-inclosing,  to  contain 
emptiness  which  can  be  filled.  Thus  it  has  a 
very  important  place  in  the  useful  Arts,  being  the 
example  and  prototype  of  all  kinds  of  boxes, 
kettles,  cups,  pans,  utensils  for  holding  fluids, 
for  surrounding  them  with  a  fixed  surface  which 
will  not  let  them  escape.  In  commerce  the  pres- 
ent form  suggests  what  is  known  as  hollow  ware. 
Bottom,  top,  sides,  it  has,  all  of  them  surfaces 
connected  or  self -returning,  and  thus  capable  of 
holding  things. 

The  following  movement  will,  accordingly, 
show  itself  in  the  present  stage,  which  also 
must  reveal  its  order  through  the  Psychosis. 
The  student  may  find  it  to  her  profit  to  turn 
back  to  the  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude,  where 
the  point  unfolds  itself  ideally  as  turning-point, 
and  to  note  the  correspondence  in  movement. 


360  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Thus  the  inner,  creative  significance  of  these 
Gifts  of  Abstract  Magnitude  will  become  more 
deeply  impressed  upon  the  mind :  — 

1.  Point  moving  into  the  Line    (as  suggested 
or  ideal). 

2.  Line  (as  real)  moving  into  the  Surface  (as 
suggested  or  ideal). 

3.  Surface   (as   real)    moving  into    itself,  or 
self -returning,  which  gives  the  suggested  solid. 

As  this  is  the  great  field  of  selection  and 
hence  of  variation,  the  kindergardner  may  notice 
some  Occupations  omitted  and  others  added 
which  are  little  used.  The  main  thing,  however, 
is  the  psychical  process  ordering  these  Occupa- 
pations,  which  is  also  the  great  educative  fact. 
There  may  be  dozens  of  Occupations  in  the 
present  field,  and  they  may  well  vary  according 
to  circumstances,  and  even  according  to  locality. 
Still,  in  spite  of  all  variations  there  is  the 
fundamental  psychical  movement  which  is  to 
hold  them  together  in  an  active,  yes  self -active 
unity. 

1.  Point  to  Line  as  ideal.  The  Point  as 
already  unfolded  in  the  Gifts  of  Abstract  Magni- 
tude is  self-separating,  self-projecting  and  thus 
moves  into  the  Line  ideally.  From  Point  to 
Point  lies  the  suggestion  of  the  Line,  though  it 
may  not  be  real.  We  start  the  useful  industrial 
Occupations  with  such  a  Point,  truly  their  start- 
ing-point, reproducing  this  element  of  Abstract 


FROEBEISS  PLAT  GIFTS.— INDUSTEIAL.     361 

Magnitude  in  a  material  object  as  a  means  for 
making  something. 

(«.)  Dotting.  The  Point  is  made  real  in  a 
dot;  it  is  thus  immediate,  material,  the  positive 
Point.  An  implement  is  employed,  say  a  lead 
pencil;  and  now  color  can  be  introduced. 

(6.)  Perforating.  The  Point  next  penetrates 
matter,  separates  it,  and  thus  indicates  the 
separative  stage.  The  Point  is  here  not  a  dot 
but  a  puncture,  asserts  itself  actively  against  the 
material  object,  passing  from  without  to  within. 
Again  an  implement  comes  into  use,  a  pointed 
one.  If  the  first  Point  be  called  positive,  this 
may  be  named  the  negative  Point,  showing  itself 
by  the  negation  of  matter,  which  is  thereby  seen 
to  have  no  reality  against  it. 

(c.)  Cutting.  The  Point  as  perforation  moves 
into  a  line,  is  continuously  active  in  its  division. 
Or  the  Point  as  separative  returns  to  itself,  to 
another  Point,  and  so  produces  the  separating 
line.  The  implement  is  now  itself  a  continuous 
line  of  sharp  Points,  a  needle  projected  or  pro- 
longed into  an  edged  tool,  the  knife  or  scissors. 

It  may  be  here  noticed  that  each  of  these 
Occupations  —  Dotting,  Perforating,  Cutting  — 
has  a  corresponding  implement  —  the  dull  Point 
in  the  pencil,  the  sharp  Point  in  the  needle,  the 
sharp  edge  (line)  in  the  knife-blade.  The  sur- 
face has  an  implement  which  is  a  surface  in  the 
brush  or  even  in  the  flat  of  the  hand.  The  tool  is 


362  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

like  its  work,  we  make  a  Point  with  a  Point  and 
a  cut  Line  with  a  Line.  The  dot  and  the  punc- 
ture in  succession  suggest  the  Line,  and  may  be 
brought  to  suggest  the  surface  of  the  outline. 
Still  the  Point  in  the  present  stage  is  real,  while 
line,  outline,  and  surface  are  ideal.  But  through 
the  cut  line  repeating  itself  in  the  material  we 
get  the  strip,  string,  the  real  line  —  with  which 
we  pass  to  the  following  stage. 

The  process  which  shows  itself  in  Dotting, 
Perforating,  Cutting,  will  be  manifest  to  the 
careful  student,  who  is  to  hold  together  all  these 
seemingly  distinct  things  in  the  unity  of  her 
thought.  The  kindergardner  who  keeps  ever 
present  and  fresh  in  her  soul  this  genetic  move- 
ment in  the  simple  Occupations  is  the  one  who  is 
growing  and  is  truly  creative  in  her  task,  which 
becomes  to  her  not  a  disconnected,  distracted 
spirit-deadening  routine,  but  a  living  fountain  of 
inspiration.  When  playing  with  the  children, 
she  still  keeps  inwardly  the  generative  -thread 
which  creates  and  unifies  what  she  is  doing. 

Already  we  have  come  to  the  real  Line,  or  the 
Line  materialized,  which  is  next  to  perform  its 
part  in  these  useful  industrial  Occupations. 
This  embodied  Line  in  its  various  forms  is  to  be 
wrought  in  material  objects  of  manifold  kinds, 
transforming  them  and  making  them  useful. 

2.  Line  to  Surface  as  ideal.  Here  too  we 
very  properly  expect  a  movement,  which  connects 


FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.    363 

genetically  the  Occuptions  of  the  present  stage. 
As  in  the  previous  stage  the  real  Point  produced 
the  ideal  or  suggested  Line  and  they  passed  into 
the  real  or  materialized  Line,  so  now  the  real  Line 
will  produce  the  ideal  or  suggested  Surface,  and 
then  pass  over  into  the  real  Surface,  dropping  in 
its  passage  quite  a  series  of  industrial  Occupations. 

(a.)  The  real  Line  in  these  Occupations  takes 
a  number  of  shapes  —  thread,  strip,  string,  slat, 
etc. ;  also  it  is  made  of  a  variety  of  materials.  It 
will  hold  together  points,  lines,  surfaces,  and 
still  remain  a  Line,  showing  itself  the  connecting 
element. 

-  ( 1 . )  Bead-stringing  —  which  is  a  stringing  of 
points  on  a  line,  both  of  course  being  material. 

(  2 . )  Stra  to-stringing  —  which  is  a  stringing  of 
lines  on  a  line,  the  straws  being  cut  to  a  suitable 
length  for  this  purpose.  Also  the  perforation  is 
not  given  as  in  beads,  but  is  made  by  the  child. 

(3.)  Tablet-stringing  —  which  is  a  stringing 
of  surfaces  on  a  line.  These  surfaces  may  be 
represented  by  a  button  or  a  disc,  with  perfora- 
tions already  given  or  to  be  made  with  the  imple- 
ment. 

These  three  Occupations  may  not  be  deemed 
very  important,  but  they  all  have  been  and  are 
still  at  times  used  in  the  kindergarden.  It  is  at 
least  worth  while  to  know  their  place  in  the 
order. 

Such  is  the  Line  as  Line,  wherein  it  is  shown 


364  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

taking  tip  and  holding  together  in  line  the  Ab- 
stract Magnitudes  —  points,  lines,  surfaces.  Yet 
it  holds  them  together  as  distinct,  in  separation. 

(6.)  Line  passes  to  outline,  returning  into 
itself.  Thus  we  have  the  two  parts:  the  real 
outline  and  the  ideal  or  suggested  surface.  Here 
belong  a  number  of  important  Occupations,  since 
the  outline  lends  itself  specially  to  form-making, 
and  reaches  over  toward  drawing,  which  is  at 
first  a  kind  of  outlining.  The  line  now  incloses 
the  surface,  which  may  be  ideal  or  non-material, 
and  also  material  or  real. 

(1.)  Strip-interlacing.  Paper  strips  are  em- 
ployed as  lines  in  various  combinations  and  par- 
ticularly as  outlines.  These  strips  may  be  more 
or  less  broad,  thus  showing  something  of  a  sur- 
face; still  the  essence  is  linear,  interlacing  of 
paper  strips  calls  into  play  chiefly  the  quality  of 
pliability  in  the  material. 

(2.)  Slat-interlocking.  We  change  the  line 
from  paper  to  wood,  which  shows  a  new  property 
of  matter  here  to  be  employed,  namely  elasticity. 
Slat-interlocking  is  distinguished  from  strip- 
interlacing  by  its  independence,  being  held  to- 
gether by  its  own  inner  power,  and  not  required 
to  be  pasted  to  some  supporting  object  outside 
of  itself.  It  may  indeed  lean  as  a  whole  against 
an  external  support,  as  it  is  still  material ;  but  it 
should  not  fall  together  within  or  droop,  as  paper 
strips  are  inclined  to  do,  if  set  upright.  The 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.-  INDUSTRIAL.     365 

forms  produced  by  the  interlocking  of  slats  show 
an  individuality  of  their  own,  an  internal  bond  of 
connection  which  separates  them  from  the  pre- 
ceding forms. 

(3.)  Sewing  in  outline.  The  real  line  or 
thread  is  made  to  pass  through  a  perforation, 
and  thus  produce  an  outline.  Sewing  in  one 
way  or  other  employs  point,  line,  and  surface,  as 
well  as  implement.  It  runs  a  line  through  a 
series  of  points,  and  thereby  outlines  a  surface  of 
some  sort ;  in  it  we  see  the  Abstract  Magnitudes 
transforming  the  material  object. 

(c.)  The  real  Line  passes  into  the  real  Sur- 
face. We  now  behold  the  filling  of  the  outline 
or  the  making  of  the  surface,  which  is  no  longer 
simply  suggested  or  outlined  but  is  materialized. 

Weaving  is  the  Occupation  which  illustrates 
the  preceding  statement.  It  has  usually  two  sets 
of  lines  (or  threads)  which  cross  one  another  and 
produce  the  surface.  By  weaving  the  vast  variety 
of  tissues  is  brought  into  existence,  those  fabrics 
of  which  man's  clothing  is  chiefly  made.  Nature 
weaves  in  hundreds  of  ways  both  in  the  plant 
and  in  the  animal.  Life  has  a  tendency  to  cover 
itself  everywhere  with  its  woven  garment,  whose 
weaving  is  apart  of  its  own  process.  To  live  is 
to  weave,  and  this  inner  tissue  of  his  body  man 
projects  outside  into  his  raiment,  to  hide  his 
nakedness. 

Weaving  must,    therefore,   be    pronounced    a 


36G  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

great  thing.  The  scattered  threads  of  existence 
(physical  and  mental)  it  gathers  into  the  con- 
nected surface,  thus  producing  the  fabric  of 
life's  unification  (Lebenseinigung).  After  food 
comes  raiment,  which  soon  calls  for  some  kind 
of  weaving. 

3.  Surface  simple  to  self -returning .  We  may 
consider  the  real  surface  to  have  been  produced 
for  us  by  Weaving.  We  have,  accordingly, 
gotten  our  surface  materialized,  and  next  we  are 
to  transform  it  by  the  Abstract  Magnitudes,  thus 
showing  some  new  industrial  Occupations. 

(a.)  Sewing  —  which  in  its  primal  form  is 
the  fastening  together  of  two  material  surfaces 
through  point  and  line,  also  material.  This  is 
distinct  from  outline  sewing,  which  was  previously 
considered. 

(6.)  Paper-work,  which  has  a  number  of 
varieties.  Paper  is  the  chief  surface  employed 
in  the  kindergarden ;  it  is  pliable,  adjustable  with 
a  very  slight  reaction  against  assault ;  it  is  yield- 
ing, responsive,  impressible ;  its  general  character 
is  to  receive  easily  and  to  preserve  what  it 
receives. 

Paper  will  respond  to  the  point  and  the  line, 
which  transform  it  in  several  significant  ways. 
As  in  the  Sewing  we  had  the  thread  or  the 
positive  line,  so  now  we  have  the  cut  line,  or  the 
negative  line,  which  separates  in  becoming  a  part 
of  the  surface. 


FROEBEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.     36? 

(1.)  Outside  cutting,  or  the  separation  of  the 
surface  round  the  border,  whereby  manifold 
shapes  are  produced. 

(2.)  Inside  cutting,  or  the  removal  of  the 
surface  within,  whereby  manifold  shapes  are 
produced;  that  is,  the  paper  inside  the  border  is 
cut  away.  The  inside  cutting  produces  a  corre- 
sponding outside  cutting,  which  may  be  and 
often  is  preserved. 

(3.)  Paper-folding;  the  surface  is  not  now 
cut  away  but  is  folded  or  duplicated;  in  this 
sense  the  present  process  is  the  opposite  of  the 
preceding.  Yet  paper-folding  uses  the  line,  now 
in  the  form  of  the  crease,  not  of  the  cut. 

All  three  Occupations  diminish  the  surface  of 
the  paper,  though  in  different  ways,  and  run 
lines  through  it  to  produce  figures. 

(c.)  Box-work.  Now  the  surf  ace  returns  into 
itself  out  of  its  form,  and  produces  the  box. 
This  is  usually  called  in  the  kindergarden  card- 
board modeling,  but  the  term  is  a  misnomer.  In 
the  first  place  it  is  not  modeling  at  all,  which 
properly  belongs  to  plastic  work ;  in  the  second 
place  many  other  materials  beside  cardboard  can 
be  used,  especially  paper  and  wood  and  clay. 

Thus  we  have  reached  the  self -returning  sur- 
face, quite  as  the  point  returned  into  itself 
(another  point)  and  produced  the  line,  quite  as 
this  line  returned  into  itself  and  produced  the 
outline  with  its  suggested  or  inclosed  surface. 


368  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

We  observe  that  the  first  genetic  nature  of  the 
point  has  kept  itself  up  through  line  and  surface. 
The  surface  now  concludes  itself  by  producing 
not  exactly  a  solid,  but  what  seems  such  —  a 
hollow  solid. 

As  regards  the  shapes  which  Box-work  assumes 
we  may  notice  the  following  movement  in  them : 

(1.)  The  surface  returning  simply  into  itself 
and  producing  the  square  and  the  round  box,  as 
well  as  their  derivative  shapes. 

(2.)  The  box  can  be  separated  within  by  par- 
titions of  various  kinds  —  the  internally  divided 
box. 

(3.)  Concentric  boxes,  square  and  round,  can 
be  reproduced  in  this  Occupation  by  the  child. 
As  already  set  forth  under  the  Gifts  of  Abstract 
Magnitude,  concentrism  belongs  inherently  to  the 
line  and  the  surface;  at  present  it  appears  again, 
for  the  purpose  of  being  embodied  in  the  work 
of  the  child.  • 

It  has  already  been  said  that  the  psychical 
principle  of  the  box  remains  the  same,  whatever 
be  the  material  of  which  it  is  constructed.  If 
the  box  be  made  of  clay,  the  work  is  usually 
called  modeling,  and  it  is  placed  under  clay- 
modeling.  Psychically,  however,  it  is  box- work, 
or  hollow- ware  work,  to  which  most  kinds  of 
pottery  belong.  A  jar  or  vase  is  a  round,  self- 
returning  surface,  be  it  of  stone,  wood,  or  clay. 
The  commercial  term  is  hollow-ware,  and  that 


FROEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS,— INDUSTRIAL.     369 

brings  out  the  idea  of  the  utility  of  the  object,  it 
is  good  for  containing  something  in  its  hollow 
portion. 

But  now  the  surface  is  to  return  into  itself, 
and  at  the  same  time  make  point  and  line  ex- 
plicit, which  it  has  hitherto  held  implicit  within 
itself.  Such  is  the  completed  return  of  the  Ab- 
stract Magnitudes  in  the  present  stage. 

C.  THE  GRAPHIC  (SELF-REFLECTING)  INDUS- 
TRIAL OCCUPATION  —  PEAS-WORK.  Point,  Line, 
Surface,  picture  themselves  in  their  reality  before 
passing  into  the  picture  or  drawing,  in  which 
they  are  made  to  appear  real. 

In  Peas-work  the  elements  of  Abstract  Magni- 
tude are  reproduced  as  distinct  and  separate,  yet 
united  in  one  shape ;  thus  there  is  the  most  com- 
plete separation,  yet  combined  into  unity.  Point, 
Line,  and  Surface  (Outline)  are  visible,  material, 
explicit ;  also  there  is  the  return  of  the  Surface 
into  itself,  which  makes  the  object  space-inclos- 
ing, hollow  —  a  box.  It  is  not  solid,  though 
sometimes  declared  to  be  so ;  it  too  holds  things 
and  resembles  the  crate  of  commerce,  which  is 
employed  for  the  transportation  of  certain  kinds 
of  merchandise.  Froebel  calls  it  a  transparent 
solid,  though  such  a  designation  is  not,  and  per- 
haps is  not  intended  to  be,  strictly  accurate. 

We  must  see  that  Peas-work  is  a  return  to 
Modeling,  the  first  or  plastic  stage  of  the  In- 

24 


370  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

dustrial  Occupations.  The  Point,  Line,  Surface 
(in  outline)  are  reproduced  separately  in  material, 
for  their  own  sake,  in  order  to  show  themselves 
in  their  own  right,  though  they  are  united  in  a 
form  which  may  be  used  for  another  purpose. 
Peas-work  cannot  be  said  to  represent  a  useful 
economic  art,  like  weaving,  sewing,  or  box-mak- 
ing. In  the  kindergarden  it  would  hardly  appear, 
were  it  not  for  its  educative  purpose  in  showing 
the  third  stage  in  the  movement  of  the  industrial 
Occupations. 

In  Peas-work  Point,  Line,  Surface  (the  Abstract 
Magnitudes)  embody  themselves  in  a  material 
shape,  whose  end  is  just  this  embodiment  of 
Point,  Line,  and  Surface  in  a  material  shape. 
Or  we  may  say  that  Point,  Line,  and  Surface  now 
reproduce  themselves  simply  for  the  sake  of  mani- 
festing their  own  self -reproduction.  That  is,  they 
are  here  self -reflecting,  graphic,  making  a  picture 
of  themselves,  and  so  form  the  transition  to 
Drawing. 

Furthermore,  they  are  means  to  an  end,  but 
this  end  does  not  lie  outside  of  themselves  as  in 
the  second  stage,  the  useful  industrial  Occupa- 
tions ;  they  have  become  the  means  for  their  own 
self -manifestation.  They  are  three,  yet  one  in 
all  distinctness,  hence  they  are  a  very  suggestive 
image  to  the  Ego  of  itself. 

Peas-work,  like  Box-work,  is  capable  of  many 
forms  derived  from  the  line. 


FBOEBEVS  PLAY  GIFTS.— INDUSTRIAL.     371 

1.  Simple  forms  —  curved  or  straight-lined. 

2.  Partitioned  forms  —  with  lines  running  in- 
side and  making  partitions  —  crates. 

3.  Concentric    forms  —  rectilineal     and    also 
curvilineal.     Herein  a  new  principle  may  be  em- 
ployed.    It  is  not  necessary  for  the  concentric 
lines  or  surfaces  to  be  parallel.     We  may  put  an 
octagon  inside   a  cube,  and  still  another  figure 

o  o 

inside  the  octagon.  Thus  through  concentric 
Peas-work  we  begin  to  see  form  within  form,  not 
merely  of  a  different  size  but  of  a  different  shape, 
and  we  seem  to  be  looking  into  the  transparent 
source  of  all  forms.  Concentrism  again  directs 
us  toward  the  genetic  center,  yet  by  a  new  way, 
in  the  present  Occupation.  Hitherto  we  have 
seen  difference  of  form  outside  the  shapes,  in 
separation,  but  now  we  behold  it  inside,  the 
transformation  is  manifested  as  internal,  even  in 
the  material  object. 

We  may  observe,  therefore,  in  Peas-work  the 
real  embodiment  of  the  entire  movement  of 
Point,  Line,  and  Surface,  which  has  shown  itself 
in  the  foregoing  industrial  Occupations.  Behold 
'the  Point  (as  pea)  moving  out  of  itself  to 
another  Point  and  so  producing  the  Line  here  ma- 
terialized; then  this  Line  returns  into  itself  (like 
the  Point)  and  incloses  the  Surface;  then  this 
Surface  returns  into  itself  and  incloses  the  spatial 
form  of  the  Solid.  All  this  is  represented  sepa- 
rately, in  material  objects,  yet  in  a  single  shape. 


372  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Thus  it  is  manifest  that  Peas-work  is  psycho- 
logically the  third  phase  of  the  separative  stage 
in  the  reproduction  of  Abstract  Magnitudes. 
Separated  completely  to  vision,  yet  self -returning 
and  unified  are  all  of  them  —  Point,  Line,  Sur- 
face. This  return,  we  may  repeat,  is  the  char- 
acteristic of  the  third  phase  of  the  Psychosis. 

In  Peas-work,  accordingly,  the  reproduction 
of  Abstract  Magnitudes  taken  by  themselves  has 
completed  itself.  They  unite  in  the  form,  yet 
the  form  is  what  holds  them  asunder  and  mani- 
fests them  in  their  separation  as  well  as  in  their 
unity.  In  Peas-work,  therefore,  the  form  has 
to  show  the  Abstract  Magnitudes,  but  previously 
in  the  useful  industrial  Occupations  the  Abstract 
Magnitudes  had  to  show  or  to  bring  out  the  form. 
Yet  in  Peas-work  also  they  bring  out  the  form 
which  in  turn  brings  them  out,  namely,  Point, 
Line,  Surface. 

In  a  sense  we  may  regard  Peas- work  as  the  tri- 
umph of  the  Abstract  Magnitudes  over  the  Con- 
crete, inasmuch  as  they  take  the  solid  and  use  it 
to  manifest  themselves.  The  ideal  elements  — 
Point,  Line,  Surface  —  thus  indicates  their  mas- 
tery over  the  real,  and  subject  it  to  their  purpose, 
which  is  ultimately  that  of  self -revelation.  This 
mastery  will  come  out  more  strongly  in  the  next 
Occupation,  that  of  Drawing. 

Peas-work  is  the  solid  reduced  to  its  skeleton, 
to  that  which  simply  holds  itself  together,  yet 


FEOEBEU  S  PL  A  Y  GIFTS.— IND  USTRIAL.     373 

appearing  still  in  all  its  dimensions  —  length, 
breadth,  height.  This  actual  skeleton  is  visible, 
standing  there  with  bones,  joints,  perchance  some 
ligaments  showing  themselves  to  the  eye,  which 
may  well  wonder  what  it  all  does  mean.  A  skele- 
ton of  this  whole  solid  world  we  may  deem  it  in  a 
way,  a  form  concentrating  in  itself  the  simple 
elements  of  all  magnitude.  A  transparent  shape, 
in  fact  doubly  transparent ;  we  may  see  through 
not  only  its  sides,  but  in  it  we  may  begin  to  see 
through  the  whole  material  universe. 

But  such  is  not  yet  the  end:  this  skeleton 
which  is  still  material,  real,  having  length, 
breadth  and  height,  is  to  vanish  into  a  shadow; 
it  is  to  become  a  veritable  ghost  —  the  ghost  not 
the  skeleton,  of  the  solid  world,  which  is  thereby 
made  to  appear,  is  reduced  simply  to  an  appear- 
ance, and  thus  is  compelled  to  tell  the  truth  about 
itself.  Herewith  we  begin  to  enter  the  Graphic 
Occupation  —  Drawing,  which  still  reproduces  the 
solid,  but  through  the  surface,  line,  and  point. 
So  the  solid  is  projected  into  a  surface  in  Draw- 
ing, but  the  surface  is  also  projected  into  a  solid 
which,  however,  still  remains  a  surface.  Thus 
our  solid  world  is  undergoing  a  deeper  transform- 
ation of  itself,  it  is  turning  to  an  image  or 
reDresentation,  to  a  picture. 


m. 

THE    GRAPHIC    OCCUPATION. 

In  the  kindergarden  we  designate  this  Occupa- 
tion by  its  popular  name,  Drawing,  which  is,  of 
course,  to  be  retained.  In  the  present  work, 
however,  the  attempt  is  made  to  connect  all  the 
parts  and  stages  of  the  Play-gifts  by  a  terminol- 
ogy, in  which  their  unity  is  hinted  by  the  terms 
employed.  Hence  the  above  caption. 

This  is  the  third  stage  in  the  total  movement 
of  the  Occupations,  whose  essence  is,  as  already 
stated,  the  reproduction  of  what  has  before  been 
given.  There  is  a  return  to  the  Plastic  Occupa- 
tion, which  reproduces  the  solid,  or  specially  the 
Gifts  of  Concrete  Magnitude ;  but  this  return  is 
through  the  Industrial  Occupations,  which  em- 
ployed point,  line,  surface,  or  the  Abstract  Mag- 
nitudes, as  means. 
(374) 


FEOE 'BEL'S  PLAY  GIFTS.— DBA  WING.       375 

The  Graphic  Occupation  is,  therefore,  the  re- 
production of  the  Concrete  Magnitudes  in  and 
through  the  Abstract  Magnitudes;  point,  line, 
surface  now  take  up  and  reproduce  the  solid  as 
their  own,  as  themselves. 

Accordingly,  the  material  object  in  Drawing 
seems  to  have  three  dimensions,  but  has  not  in 
reality ;  it  is  reduced  to  a  seeming,  an  appear- 
ance—  and  what  else  is  it?  A  manifestation  of 
something  unseen  is  all  matter,  which  thus  is 
itself  an  appearance.  Hence  Drawing  is  a  getting 
at  the  truth  of  things,  and  is  or  may  be,  in  the 
right  sense  of  the  word,  truer  than  the  physical 
object  itself,  which  it  makes  seem  to  be,  but  not 
really  be.  Herein  Drawing  participates  in  the 
function  of  all  Art. 

Abstract  Magnitude  has  torn  the  solid  to  pieces, 
to  very  shreds,  has  dissolved  it  into  points,  lines, 
surfaces,  and  left  it,  first  a  skeleton,  and  then  a 
shadow.  But  this  whole  solid  world  is  now  to  be 
reconstructed  after  such  a  dissolution  into  its 
elements ;  it  is  to  be  rebuilt  and  made  over  into 
the  temple  of  Art,  whose  function  is  to  reveal  to 
man  the  divinely  creative  spirit. 

If  we  look  back,  we  can  now  see  that  all  the 
preceding  Occupations,  and  the  Gifts,  too,  were  a 
kind  of  Drawing,  or  preparation  for  it,  or  in- 
timation of  it.  We  noticed  it  in  the  industrial 
Occupations  —  Sewing,  Interlacing,  Paper-fold- 
ing, etc.  We  go  further  back  to  the  stage  of 


376  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

Abstract  Magnitude,  and  observe  the  incipient 
principle  of  Drawing  in  Stick-laying,  and  indeed 
in  all  forms  produced  by  combining  tablets,  rings, 
and  seeds.  In  Concrete  Magnitude,  the  Building 
Gifts  ultimately  go  back  to  Drawing ;  in  archi- 
tecture the  Drawing  usually  is  made  before  the 
edifice  and  determines  it,  the  surface-shape  being 
projected  into  the  solid  one.  The  surface  is  ideal, 
and  the  solid  has  to  be  dipped  into  it  and  passed 
through  it,  has  to  receive  the  baptism  of  the 
ideal  in  Drawing,  before  the  edifice  or  the  temple 
can  be  constructed. 

In  many  industries  of  the  present  time,  the 
work  is  preceded  by  a  Drawing,  which  shows  the 
form  ruling  the  raw  material.  Thus,  if  the  in- 
dustrial Occupations  lead  up  to  Drawing,  the 
latter  returns,  so  to  speak,  and  reproduces  them. 
Crude  matter  must  be  smelted  by  the  brain  and 
poured  into  an  ideal  mould  through  Drawing,  ere 
it  can  be  fully  transformed  by  man  for  his  use, 
So  it  comes  that  manufactures  of  a  complicated 
nature  require  the  draughtsman. 

Drawing  as  the  Graphic  Occupation  is  at  pres- 
ent to  be  considered  in  its  educative  aspect  as  it 
is  brought  to  the  little  child,  to  whose  training 
it  is  to  contribute.  The  first  thing  asked  for 
must  be  the  psychical  process  involved  in  Draw- 
ing, which  also  is  to  develop  the  child's  Ego  in 
its  peculiar  field.  Here  again  we  shall  observe 
the  threefold  process. 


FROEBEVS  PLAT  GIFTS.— DRAWING.       377 

I.  First  is  what  may  be  called  Free  or  Spon- 
taneous Drawing  (not  Free-hand  Drawing,  which 
comes   later).     Let   the   child   take  a   piece  of 
chalk  or  pencil,  having  a  surface  before  him  suit- 
able for  his  purpose ;  let  him  try  to  draw  some 
solid   object,    that  is,    project   it  into    a  plane. 
Thus  he  begins  his  acquaintance  with  his  mate- 
rials, with  himself;  but  he  soon  finds  such  ac- 
quaintance very  limited,  he  has  no  possession  of 
his   material,  none  of   his    hand,  none  of  line, 
point   and   surface.     The    child   has   found   his 
limit,  he   is    ready   for   help.     Undoubtedly  he 
loves  to  draw,  so  does  the  savage ;  Drawing  is  a 
profound  racial  instinct.     The  children's  Draw- 
ings have  their  place  in  the  educative   process ; 
they  belong,  however,  to  the   immediate    stage 
which   must   be  transcended.      The   child   him- 
self, properly  directed,  will    call   for   the   next 
stage. 

II.  This  is  what  may  be  named,  in  general, 
Prescriptive  Drawing,  that  is,  certain  prescribed 
elements  or  principles  control  the  previous  Free 
Drawing  of  the  child,  who  has  therein  run  upon 
his   limit.     Now   he   needs,    in    fact   calls   for, 
instruction  or  prescription,  which  is  nothing  else 
than  the  experience  of  the  past  in  the  matter  of 
Drawing.     This  twofoldness  enters  the   present 
sphere  —  the   activity  of  the  child  on  the   one 
hand  proceeding  from  within,  and  the  prescribed 
course  or  method  on  the  other  proceeding  from 


378  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

without,  which,  however,  is  to  be  taken  up  by 
the  child  and  made  his  own,  internalized. 

In  the  Froebelian  kindergarden  the  net-work 
of  small  squares  is  the  fundamental  prescriptive 
element  in  Drawing.  This  method  has  been  bit- 
terly attacked  and  warmly  defended,  and  the 
controversy  is  still  unsettled.  Undoubtedly 
children  at  school  before  Froebel's  time  learned 
Drawing  without  such  net-work ;  but  he  is  look- 
ing out  for  very  young  children  in  this  matter, 
kindergarden  children,  whose  little  hands  need 
more  help  than  those  of  older  children.  So 
there  is  a  place  for  the  net- work  in  Drawing. 

Still  this  method  can  be  abused.  Not  too  much 
of  it  by  any  means ;  otherwise  the  very  purpose 
of  it  will  be  destroyed.  The  kindergardner 
should  always  keep  in  mind  this  purpose :  it  is  to 
train  the  child  to  do  without  such  help.  Here 
again  there  is  the  process  —  the  process  of  getting 
rid  of  prescription  through  prescription.  The 
stages  thereof  will  indicate  this  fact. 

Let  us  again  look  at  the  prescribed  material, 
the  netted  surface,  measured  off  on  the  basis  of 
a  square  inch,  which  may  be  subdivided  (but  not 
too  much).  Thus  the  space  into  which  the  child 
is  to  project  the  solid  object  is  meted  and  bounded 
for  him  in  advance ;  the  net-work  is  already  a 
kind  of  outline  into  which  he  is  to  put  the  outline 
of  the  solid.  In  this  way  the  child  begins  to  get 
proportion,  which  depends  upon  a  just  measure- 


FROEBEV  S  PL  A  T  GIFTS.— DBA  WING.        379 

ment,  and  for  which  he  needs  at  first  a  given, 
ever-present  standard,  till  his  eye  can  judge  and 
his  hand  can  execute  without  any  outside  line. 

1.  First,  the  child  is  allowed  to  draw  freely  in 
this  netted  material,  just  as  he  drew  freely  in  the 
first  stage  without  any  such  netting.     What  will 
he  do  spontaneously  with  these  given  squares? 
At  least  he  will  make  their  acquaintance  and  test 
them  in  a  number  of  ways.     Before  long,  how- 
ever, he  will  ask  for  the  second  stage  of  pre- 
scription, in  which  the  element  of  instruction  is 
more  pronounced. 

2.  On  these  netted  lines  the  child  is  to  make 
lines  of  his  own  in  a  prescribed  way,  so  that  they 
suggest  forms,  geometric  or  symmetrical.     That 
is,  he  starts  from  a  Point,  and  reproduces  Line 
and  Surface,  guided   by   these   given  lines  and 
surfaces  of  the  net-work,  till  he  makes  a  pattern 
or  figure  of  his  own.     Thus  he  is  getting  the 
first  control  of  the  elements  of  Abstract  Magrni- 

O 

tude  —  Point,  Line,  and  Surface  —  for  the  pur- 
pose of  Drawing,  which  elements  are  the  basis  of 
his  future  progress  in  this  field. 

This  is  now  called  usually  Froebelian  Drawing, 
though  Froebel's  conception  of  Drawing  was 
wider.  He  intended  the  net- work  and  its  forms 
to  be  a  transition  to  freedom  (see  Reminiscences, 
pp.  234-5),  and  he  claims  that  it  leads  to  inven- 
tion, when  the  child  gets  possession  of  the  in- 
strumentalities for  such  work.  The  same  forms 


380  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF 

can  be  brought  out  in  Sewing,  and  also  in  Stick- 
laying,  which,  as  already  said,  may  be  regarded 
as  kinds  of  Drawing. 

3.  Finally  the  child  is  to  pass  from  these  reg- 
ular mathematical  forms  into  forms  of  beauty 
and  of  life  ;^in  fact  he  will  show  directly  his  geo- 
metric shapes  transforming  themselves  into  a 
house  or  other  object  by  means  of  parallel  lines. 
Still  he  draws  on  the  netted  paper,  which,  how- 
ever, is  the  next  thing  to  be  discarded. 

Thus  the  child  has  gone  through  a  process  of 
development  in  which  prescription  is  the  dominant 
fact,  yet  always  with  the  end-in-view,  which  is 
freedom.  Even  the  surface  (paper  or  wood)  is 
prescribed.  But  now,  having  gained  the  use  of 
his  tools,  pencil,  hand,  and  specially  the  use  of 
Point,  Line,  and  Surface,  for  reproducing  the 
solid,  he  can  begin  the  third  stage. 

III.  This  we  may  call  Free-hand  Drawing,  as 
distinct  from  Free  Drawing,  which  is  the  first 
stage.  That  is,  the  hand  is  now  trained  to  free- 
dom ;  at  first  it  was  not  free,  except  in  an  unruly, 
capricious  sense.  For  the  muscles  must  also  go 
to  school  and  get  their  education  before  they  can 
be  the  ready  instrument  of  the  mind  in  Drawing 
or  in  anything  else. 

Also  there  is  freedom  from  the  net-work  now, 
as  it  has  subserved  its  purpose.  The  question 
comes  up,  when  shall  this  net- work  be  laid  aside? 
No  rule  applicable  to  every  child  can  be  given ; 


FEOEBEUS  PLAT  GIFTS —DRAWING.       381 

here  the  judgment  of  the  living  teacher  is  the 
supreme  necessity.  If  the  child  be  kept  too  long 
in  the  prescribed  lines,  his  spontaneity  is  ham- 
pered; if  not  long  enough,  he  will  be  helpless  or 
capricious  in  his  freedom.  If  the  kindergardner 
is  alert  and  skillful,  she  will  have  means  or 
devices  by  which  the  child  will  of  himself  move 
easily,  quite  imperceptibly,  out  of  one  stage  to 
the  other,  though  sometimes  a  jump  has  its 
advantages. 

In  the  last  stage  we  have  reached  the  end  and 
aim  of  Drawing,  which  was  defined  to  be  the 
reproduction  of  Concrete  Magnitudes  in  and 
through  Abstract  Magnitudes.  The  question  is 
often  asked,  Is  the  netted  Drawing  in  Froebel 
really  Drawing  according  to  the  given  definition? 
Certainly  it  is  not  completed  Drawing,  but  a 
stage  in  the  development  of  Drawing.  The  child 
must  get  posession  of  the  Abstract  Magnitudes  — 
Point,  Line,  Surface — before  he  can  draw  by 
their  means.  This  process  of  getting  possession 
of  them  is  a  part  of  the  instruction  in  Drawing, 
is,  in  fact,  just  the  so-called  Froebelian  Drawing, 
which  we  have  sought  to  unfold  above  in  its 
psychical  movement. 

With  the  present  sphere,  the  Graphic  Occupa- 
tion, we  have  not  only  come  to  the  end  of  the 
Occupations,  but  we  have  reached  the  conclusion 
of  the  whole  cycle  of  Play-gifts.  The  child  is 
now  to  return  to  the  beginning,  he  is  to  go  back 


382  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP 

and  draw  all  that  has  been  given  —  the  Gifts  — 
and  reproduce  them  in  this  final  form.  He  can 
again  start  with  Ball,  Cube,  and  Cylinder,  and 
project  these  solids  into  a  plane  by  means  of 
his  Abstract  Magnitudes  —  Point,  Line,  Sur- 
face—  whose  use  he  has  to  a  certain  extent 
acquired,  or  is  acquiring. 

The  direct  object  of  the  Play-gifts  is  that  the 
child  obtain  the  mastery  of  Nature,  of  the  phy- 
sical world  surrounding  him  on  every  side,  though 
at  the  same  time  they  unfold  him  inwardly.  But 
in  Drawing  he  has  reduced  the  whole  material 
universe  to  a  picture,  to  a  shadow  of  itself, 
which  he  makes,  reproducing  the  solid  world 
as  an  image,  an  appearance.  That  is,  he  creates 
or  begins  to  create  anew,  in  his  own  forms,  the 
earth  and  the  heavens  too;  he  makes  over  all 
things  visible  and  sensible,  as  if  by  a  new  creative 
fiat. 

Thus  Drawing,  of  all  these  Play-gifts,  calls 
forth  most  absolutely  the  creativity  of  the  child, 
and  this  is  its  supreme  educative  value.  It  also 
exercises  perception,  strengthens  observation, 
confirms  memory,  evokes  the  imagination,  and  so 
on  to  the  end  of  the  string  of  little  psychologic 
arguments,  good  enough,  but  little.  The  one 
grand  all-inclusive  and  all-coercing  argument  is 
that  of  creativity;  the  Graphic  Occupation  de- 
velops the  child  as  a  world-maker ;  in  it  he  be- 
gins to  recreate  all  externality  and  to  cast  it  into 


FROEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS.— DRAWING.       383 

an  appearance.  At  the  same  time  he  is  educating 
himself,  transforming  himself  after  the  highest 
ideal,  becoming  a  creator  world-producing  after 
the  true  image  of  his  Creator. 

Accordingly  Drawing  consummates  yet  ends 
the  discipline  of  the  Play-gifts,  in  which  the 
child,  after  a  long,  varying,  yet  ever-triumphing 
struggle  for  mastery  over  Space,  Time,  and 
Matter,  shows  his  ability  to  fling  the  whole 
material  universe  into  a  shadow,  a  mere  eidolon, 
which  he  creates.  Certainly  in  Nature  he  can  go 
no  further. 

But  what  next?  Environing  the  child  on  every 
side  as  well  as  entering  into  his  very  being 
is  likewise  an  unseen  non-material  world,  from 
which  he  draws  the  mother's  milk  of  his  spiritual 
sustenance,  which  world  he  is  also  to  assimilate 
and  to  reproduce.  This  we  may  call  the  realm 
of  Institutions  —  Family,  the  Social  Order,  State, 
Church.  To  all  of  these,  in  one  way  or  other,  the 
child  (as  well  as  the  man)  belongs ;  first  they  are 
given  him,  then  he  is  to  recreate  them  in  his  own 
life.  The  school,  yes  the  kindergarden  is  a 
phase  or  part  of  this  Institutional  World,  which 
must  first  be  given  to  the  child  and  then  must  be 
made  over  by  him. 

Froebel  in  the  complete  circuit  of  his  educa- 
tional scheme,  has  likewise  elaborated  the  means 
for  bringing  this  Institutional  World  to  the  little 
child.  Such  is  the  purpose  and  scope  of  the 


384    PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FBOEBEUS  PLAY  GIFTS. 

PLAY-SONG  as  revealed  in  a  well-known  book 
of  his  (Die  Mutter-und-Kose-Lieder},  called  the 
Book  of  Mother  Play-songs.  Accordingly  at 
this  point  the  student  will  make  the  transition 
out  of  the  Play -gift  into  the  Play-song,  and 
connect  in  thought  these  two  grand  divisions  of 
the  Froebelian  system. 

The  preceding  exposition  has  unfolded  the 
successive  or  scientific  order,  which  necessarily 
has  its  standpoint  in  the  theme  or  subject-mat- 
ter. But  when  we  come  to  the  child,  we  must 
remember  that  he  is  all  things  at  once,  he  is 
everything  in  its  incipient  stage ;  hence  he  must 
have  both  Play-gift  and  Play-song  together  at  his 
and  their  starting-point.  Or,  as  we  have  already 
often  said,  there  must  be  an  inter-related  order, 
which  adapts  the  successive  or  scientific  order  to 
the  child,  who  is  to  be  always  regarded  as  a 
total  being  or  Ego. 

(As  the  present  work  on  the  Play-gifts  con- 
nects directly  with  the  Play-songs,  the  author 
may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  his  work  on  the  lat- 
ter subject,  which  bears  the  title,  A  Commentary 
on  FroebeVs  Mother  Play-songs.) 


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